The Black Sheep
by oOAwesomesauceOo
Summary: Instead of blindly shunning the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi like the rest of the village, Uchiha Mikoto chooses to look after him. Just how many changes would this one decision make? For example, Naruto meeting a not-so-normal Uchiha girl? OCs heavily involved. Rated M for language and suggestive themes.
1. New Beginnings

**The Black Sheep**

 **oOAwesomesauceOo**

 _I own nothing. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto._

 _ **Chapter 1: New Beginnings**_

Konohagakure no Sato.

In all appearances, everything seemed normal. Pedestrians littered the street in droves, wandering throughout the village without a care in the world, visiting friends and family, making their weekly trips to the stores dotting the village, or just milling about with no particular destination.

But today, things were a little bit different.

A golden blur sped down the streets of Konoha, bringing up dirt in its wake, causing villagers to cover their eyes and mouths, coughing.

Upon closer inspection, the golden blur was revealed to be a boy, about eight years of age. He had unkempt spiky blond hair, bright cerulean blue eyes, had a fairly tan skin complexion, and wore an orange sleeveless hoodie on top of a blue shirt, with green pants going just past his knees, and blue shinobi sandals. The most noticeable trait; however, were the six whisker-like marks on his cheeks, three on each side of his face.

This small boy was running down the street at a very high speed, laughing hysterically. Chasing after him were two of Konoha's ANBU elites, yelling for him to stop running.

"NARUTO! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Give it up! You can't catch me! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and don't you forget it!"

Further behind the hyperactive child and his pursuers, one could see the reason for the wild goose chase taking place. The Hokage Monument, which depicted the faces of all of the previous Hokage who ruled the village in the past, was covered in brightly colored paint. The Fourth Hokage's face in particular had the most 'detail'.

Naruto lead the ANBU duo all across the village, hopping from rooftop to rooftop and darting through alleys until he eventually lost them. This was an incredible feat for an eight year old brat inexperienced in the ninja arts considering that ANBU were the top of the food chain, so to speak, sans Kage level ninja.

Poking his head out from a corner and looking around to make sure that he lost them, Naruto began to make his way back to his apartment. _'I feel like I deserve a break, I don't even understand any of Iruka-sensei's lectures.'_

As he walked up the stairs to his front door, a voice spoke up from behind him.

"I thought I might find you here, Naruto."

At this point, our hero finds himself sweating bullets and slowly but surely managed to turn his head to face his teacher.

"Hello, Iruka-sensei.. Nice day, isn't it?" he said with a nervous laugh.

Now, Iruka wasn't an ill-tempered individual, and he had had his fair share of misbehaving students, but Naruto took the cake for the most troublesome child that the Academy has had in years! Not to mention that he's not even done with his first year in the Academy yet!

Iruka's head then seemed to increase three times its normal size.

"KAMI DAMN IT NARUTO! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SKIPPING CLASS? NOT ONLY THAT, BUT YOU DEFILED THE HOKAGE MONUMENT... AGAIN!"

The children of the academy, mainly Iruka's class, dubbed this as Iruka's Ookii Atama no Jutsu (Big Head Jutsu). Choji even questioned his father once to see if Iruka was somehow related to the Akimichi clan, since this was somewhat similar to their Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Multi Size Jutsu).

(Some Time Later- Iruka's Classroom- Academy)

Naruto sat on the floor of the classroom with an irritated scowl on his face, crossing his arms in defiance.

"Thank you for watching the students, Mizuki." said Iruka, a grateful smile aimed at his silver haired assistant.

"Not a problem, Iruka. I like interacting with the class anyway." said the silver-haired Chunin.

Iruka spoke up again to Naruto. "Why can't you be more like Sasuke? He's the best in the class when it comes to practical ninja arts and taijutsu, does all of his homework, and actually pays attention!"

Naruto then returned to his seat next to Sasuke with a blank expression on his face.

At this point, Naruto was too busy lost in his own thoughts to pay attention to his surroundings.

 _'Damn you Sasuke-teme... all this, and you don't even know how lucky you have it... Maybe I should get Mikoto-oba or Itachi to talk some sense into you.'_

Naruto never had that kind of praise bestowed upon him. A lot of people just ignored him or avoided him in general.

Ever since Naruto was four, he'd been living on his own in a rundown apartment since the matron of the orphanage kicked him out. One thing that Naruto never understood about the villagers was that they seemed to treat him with disrespect or even outright hatred when he didn't recall doing anything to them beforehand. Just walking down the street earned him glares from the other villagers, and some had even told their kids to stay away from him. On some occasions, violence was used against him and nobody did anything to stop it other than the Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konohagakure, or his mother-figure, Mikoto.

Aside from them, only the Ichiraku family, Iruka, Uchiha Itachi, and Sasuke-teme treated him kindly. Although, Shikamaru and Choji of his class were also more welcoming than others when it came to interacting with the blonde. Every time he tried asking the Sandaime why the villagers did this, he would change the subject or suddenly have urgent plans to see through.

Uchiha Mikoto he liked to think of as his surrogate mother. She would stop by his apartment every now and again, like the Old Man, and would talk to him about seemingly trivial things to make idle chit chat, but Naruto enjoyed those moments more than anything. She even took him shopping a lot, because the shopkeepers tended to overcharge Naruto out of spite, if they even chose to sell him anything at all, so the only thing that he could afford by himself was instant ramen.

Naruto had told her on several occasions to not come by there, or at least not be seen with him, as she was the matriarch of her clan and would receive criticism for socializing with the 'demon brat', but she had said that she didn't care. Other than Uchiha Fugaku, who stopped trying to make her avoid Naruto after he realized that she wouldn't back down, nobody in or outside of the clan had the authority to tell her otherwise. Except the Hokage, but he obviously encouraged this interaction between the two.

Sasuke was like the brother he never had. Even if they were not related by blood, the two boys were constantly around one another, in and outside of the Academy. He would sometimes join Naruto in his less extreme pranks on the villagers, such as putting itching powder in people's body lotions, or putting woopie cushions in the chairs of the clan heads, much to Uchiha Fugaku's ire.

Itachi was Naruto's out-of-Academy sparring partner for taijutsu skills which was subpar but not terrible, and genjutsu, which for Naruto, was absolutely abysmal, but with the help of Itachi's Sharingan, Naruto is slowly making progress. Although Itachi was usually strict with their lessons, they sometimes would share a laugh or two. However, Naruto noticed that Itachi had been getting more and more distant recently.

Naruto was brought back to reality by a nudge on the shoulder from his surrogate brother.

This aroused him from his daydream-like state, to see Iruka standing at his podium with a girl about his age facing the classroom that he never recalled seeing before. "I would like you to welcome Uchiha Mitomi to this class. She was transferred here to the Academy after being homeschooled for a few years, I hope you will get along well with each other. Mitomi, would you like to say something to your new classmates?" Iruka asked.

The girl then began speaking in sort of a monotone voice. "Hello everyone, My name is Uchiha Mitomi and I hope you will take care of me." She sounded as if she was devoid of emotion; her coal black eyes finding their way to Naruto, after which she smiled… but it wasn't a normal smile, it was as if this smile was forced, almost rehearsed in a way.

She was a rather thin girl with long black hair that flowed down to mid-back. She was pale like most of her clanmates, wearing a blue qipao-like dress with one of the sleeves missing, revealing a mesh shirt underneath, with black spandex shorts and black shinobi sandals. On the back of her dress she sported the Uchiha fan, like many of her clansmen do with their clothing.

Iruka pointed her to an open seat near the back of the classroom, where she sat down while the whole class was staring at her in sort of an awkward silence before Iruka began lecturing again, tearing away the attention that the class had on Mitomi. All except a particularly hyperactive knucklehead.

(A Couple of Hours Later- Academy Courtyard, Lunch Period)

Naruto sat on a swing tied to a tall tree at the far corner of the courtyard, away from all of his classmates.

He looked over to where Sasuke usually sat, to find the bench empty. _'Looks like the girls found the bastard again.'_ Naruto thought.

He then turned his attention to the looks received from his fellow ninja-in-training, and then they turned away, whispering amongst themselves. At one point, he caught a snippet of a conversation between two girls.

"You see that kid over there?" one whispered, "he's the boy my parents tell me to keep away from. They call him a demon, or something like that."

Naruto scowled at the two girls, who abruptly stopped their gossip once they realized he heard them. He turned away and faced the fence of the academy, looking out into the village.

' _Why do people always say things like that? I'm not a demon... am I?'_

He was brought out of his self pity when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around to see who would approach him, as not many of the other academy students did without a good reason, most likely from the horror stories passed down from their parents about the 'demon brat'.

As he turned around on the swingset to confront who approached him, he was taken aback when he saw the blank face of Uchiha Mitomi.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked the stoic girl.

"I came to talk to you." she replied "It seems like you need a friend. May I sit with you?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." Naruto replied, a bit put off by her attitude at this moment. He wouldn't have minded the company, were it not for how strangely fake everything felt. Needless to say, it put him a bit on edge.

"So… what do you want to do?" asked Naruto, curious as to why she was being friendly towards him. Surely, she must know that she shouldn't talk to him, that her parents would get mad if she did, right?

"I don't know, I just read in a book about building relationships that you should comfort those who seem depressed."

' _She had to read a book about human interaction? Okay, this girl is seriously strange.'_

"You know you shouldn't be talking to me right? I mean… won't your parents get mad if they see you talking to me?"

"I never knew my parents," she replied "they died right after I was born."

' _She's like me? She doesn't have any parents?'_

Suddenly, Naruto felt a pang of guilt. He had almost forgotten about Mikoto.

As the conversation progressed, and Naruto began to get more and more bold with his questions, he eventually asked the Uchiha one that was eating at the back of his mind since the conversation started.

"What happened to your parents?" Naruto asked cautiously, knowing that he might be treading on thin ice at the moment.

She paused as if in deep thought, and after a moment of hesitation, she responded "It has been so long that I cannot remember. I cannot even remember what they looked like.."

Although curious as to why she took a moment to answer, he let it slide, thinking that this must be a hard subject to talk about with other people. "Oh. well I'm sorry to hear that." Naruto stated lamely, although sincerely feeling sorry for the girl.

He paused for a moment before adopting a look of melancholy, contradicting his usual upbeat, positive attitude. "You know, I know what that's like.. not having any parents and all." he stated sadly.

"Did you know your parents?" Mitomi asked. Naruto shook his head slowly. "I never met them; Jiji said that they were good people, that they would have loved me if they were alive."

At that moment, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, calling the students back to their respective classes. This shook Naruto out of his depressed mindset, a wide grin on his face once more. "I'll see you back in class then." Naruto declared, a nod coming from Mitomi before the blonde took off toward Iruka-sensei, who laughed heartily and patted Naruto on the head for his antics.

(After Class- Academy Entrance)

Naruto walked down the concrete steps of the Academy with his hands in his pockets. He noticed all of the parents of the children being picked up looking at him with their usual distasteful glares. Naruto's head lowered as his bangs covered his eyes, his hands balling into fists and shaking. When he looked up at the crowd once more he had a tear coming down his cheek. "Why are you all looking at me like that?!" shouted Naruto, before bolting in the direction of his apartment.

Before he could start making his way over there; however, Iruka intercepted the blonde and unintentionally tripped him mid-run.

"Woah! Naruto, what's gotten into-?!" Iruka paused once he saw the current state of his student, tears streaming down his face while choking back sobs. The scarred chuunin bent down so that he could look Naruto in the eyes and give the boy a hug to try and calm him down. Once Naruto recovered from his breakdown, Iruka asked, "Naruto, what happened? I always see you causing mischief with a smile on your face, never like this."

"W-why am I treated how I am by the other villagers? I'm always b-being called a 'demon brat' and all t-these other things even though I'm not a demon. I'm not a demon, am I, s-sensei?" the boy asked between broken sobs. Iruka looked away from Naruto for a moment at the Hokage monument, with its 'modifications' still painted on. "Come with me, Naruto. I want to tell you something."

Mitomi witnessed this and decided to give chase to the blonde, but not before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

(Unknown Location- Konohagakure)

A man was walking down the tunnels of an underground hideout, looking impatient.

' _Where is she? She must come back soon so that I may begin training with the Jinchuuriki.'_ the figure thought.

This man was known as Shimura Danzo, a veteran of the Second Shinobi War, and esteemed member of the Konoha Shinobi and Civilian Council under the Sandaime Hokage. He was also commander of ROOT, an organization that the Sandaime believed to be disbanded.

The old warhawk was wearing a black robe-like garment with one of his arms tucked inside, the other holding a cane as he walked. Around his waist he wore a light blue obi; around his head were bandages that covered the right side of his face. On his chin was a scar in the shape of an 'X'. Behind him, a figure came into existence via a swirl of leaves. Said figure bowed before Danzo, waiting for permission to speak.

"I see you have returned, but without what I had asked for. Speak, Ferret."

"Yes, Danzo-sama. I believe that in order to bring him into our ranks, one must form a bond of sorts with him, therefore he may be more inclined to join us in the near future. I wish to maintain this 'friendship' for a while longer before I am certain that he will willingly come to us, seeing no other option.

'Very well. I give you permission to bond more with the Jinchuuriki, but make no mistake, I am aware that your training is yet to be completed. I am expecting you to carry out this mission with no interference. Do not disappoint me. You are dismissed."

"Yes, Danzo-sama." the figure droned, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Danzo stood there for a moment longer, a smile etching its presence on the ROOT commander's hardened features.

(Hokage Monument- Konohagakure)

Teacher and student both sat atop the Hokage monument looking out into the village. The sun was going down, illuminating the clear sky in a vast sea of orange. A gentle breeze picked up, swirling leaves every which way around the duo as they sat on the Yondaime Hokage's head in a comfortable silence.

"To answer your question, Naruto" Iruka began, "people tend to fear what they do not understand. They also seem to gravitate towards the opinion of the majority, which in some cases, is unfair. The villagers don't seem to like you because they don't understand who Uzumaki Naruto is. Because of this, many people avoid you, which leads to others to do the same. Many people are shrouded in ignorance and bias when it comes to foreign concepts, only believing what they believe is right. Unfortunately, what they think is right is not true in this case." Naruto looked up at his teacher, listening intently to his words. "I want you to know that you remind me a lot of the Fourth Hokage."

At this, Naruto's eyes widened. The Yondaime was his idol! He was the most powerful ninja he knew of, and revered him greatly. "Really?! How?" exclaimed Naruto. "Because," Iruka continued, "You have the guts to never give up, just like he did. His guts are what drove him to the top, what set him apart from the rest, and what made him truly powerful. You could become as strong as him one day, or even surpass him. I believe in you, Naruto."

This lifted Naruto's spirits greatly as he jumped up and yelled "Damn right, -ttebayo! I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage ever!" Seeing his student in better spirits, he then decided to resume his responsibilities as a teacher rather than friend. "Now, I want you to fix the entire Hokage monument! I won't let you leave until you scrub each and every drop of paint off of the Hokages' faces!" To this, Naruto blanched and then proceeded to grumble to himself as Iruka handed him a pail of water and a brush.

As he began scrubbing, Iruka noticed another student approach, being Uchiha Mitomi.

"Oh hello there, Mitomi!" the academy teacher called out.

Looking up at him, she responded with a small "Hello", an impassive look on her face. Naruto noticed his new friend and immediately got up to greet her. "Hey, Mitomi-chan! What's up?"

"Nothing at the moment, I just came to see what you were up to, Naruto-san." she replied calmly. "Would you like some help?" Mitomi asked. Naruto looked up at his teacher for confirmation, receiving a nod. "Yeah! That'd be great!" As she reached for another bucket and brush, she flashed Naruto another one of her eerie grins. _'I really need to teach her how to show emotion without creeping others the hell out, -ttebayo.'_ he deadpanned.

Settling down close to each other, the duo went to work. Unbeknownst to them, a small smile grew on their teacher's face, simply happy about the potential bond between his two students, seeing Naruto finally begin to make friends.

(An Hour Later- Hokage Monument)

The child duo and their Academy sensei all stood atop the Yondaime's head once more, before Naruto threw his pail and brush on the ground and jumped up excitedly. "Finally finished, dattebayo!"

Iruka sweatdropped at Naruto's antics, still unable to wrap his mind around how much energy the blonde possessed.

"Congratulations, Naruto. You've finished your punishment for the day. Now, how would you like to go for a nice bowl of Ichiraku ramen?" offered Iruka. To this, Naruto looked up at his teacher and big brother-figure with excitement in his eyes once more. "Really, Iruka sensei?! Yatta!" The jinchuuriki shot a fist up in the air and jumped once more. He looked over at his new raven-haired friend and then back at Iruka, before asking "Hey, can Mitomi-chan come with us?"

"I don't see why not." said Iruka, before Naruto grabbed his sensei and his newest friend by the arms and all but dragged them to his second home, the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

"Old Man!" called out Naruto as he stepped through the curtains and sat on one of the stools, on either side of him was Iruka and Mitomi. "Who're you calling old?" a voice called out from the room in the back before revealing himself to be Ichiraku Teuchi, owner and chef of Ichiraku Ramen. "Oh! It's you, Naruto." said the older man, who also acknowledged Iruka as he was also a regular customer. "I don't recall seeing you before, young lady." he spoke to Mitomi "First timer?" he questioned.

"Indeed." replied Mitomi. "In fact, this is my first time trying ramen in general." to that, not only Naruto, but Teuchi blanched as well. As if on cue, Teuchi sped into action, readying the noodles and calling into the back room where he was before. "Ayame! Come out quick! We have a case of RND! I need you on the broth, stat!" he shouted at his daughter, whom immediately came running, carrying pans and ingredients for their dishes. As the duo were preparing a bowl of their classic miso pork ramen, which also happened to be Naruto's favorite, Iruka sweatdropped at the scene unfolding in front of him. "RND? What is that?" questioned Mitomi, not understanding the situation whatsoever, although maintaining her usual stoic disposition.

Naruto turned toward his Uchiha friend with utmost seriousness etched on his face "RND is a disorder known as Ramen Noodle Deficiency. One cannot simply NOT eat ramen." acquiesced the blonde. Within seconds of Naruto's explanation, a steamy bowl of fresh ramen was laid out in front of Mitomi, an expectant look on both Teuchi and Ayame's faces, before the female Uchiha picked up her chopsticks and began eating. Once she swallowed the first bite, she spoke up. "This is quite good Teuchi-san, Ayame-san." stated the stoic girl. At that, the ramen chefs both released a breath they did not realize they were holding before high fiving one another and Naruto. Teuchi and Ayame both got to work on Iruka and Naruto's bowls without bothering to ask what they wanted, because they already knew. As Naruto began to chow down on the food of Gods, he turned toward Mitomi to say something, followed by his trademark large foxy grin. Mitomi hadn't realized what the blonde had said as she was caught up in her own musings, drowning out the outside world.

' _I wonder if this is what it is like to have a 'friend'?_ she wondered, before sensei and students all dived into their bowls of ramen.

After they were finished, Naruto pulled out his favorite wallet, Gama-chan, to find it deflated as usual. Comical tears streamed down the blonde before he woefully muttered "Gama-chan.."

Teuchi came to the rescue once he saw the predicament. "Don't worry, Naruto. That was on the house, I'm glad we cured another unfortunate soul today. That is enough payment." Naruto bowed as they exited the ramen shop. "Thanks, Teuchi-jiji!" he said with a smile.

"Well Naruto-san, I must be going home soon. I cannot afford to be staying out too late. Shall I see you again?" Mitomi questioned. "You know it, dattebayo!" replied the energetic whiskered boy. As Mitomi walked toward her home, Iruka turned to Naruto. "You know, your friend has the right idea. I'm going home soon myself, you should do the same." advised the chunin. "Alright, Iruka-sensei." he conceded. "I'll see you at the beginning of next week, Naruto. And please try to pay more attention in class!" The last part was louder and more forced as the blonde had already taken off.

Uzumaki Naruto was racing back toward his apartment before seeing a certain raven haired woman climbing down the stairs leading to said apartment, leaving, as he had not answered the door. "Mikoto-oba!" he shouted, causing the woman in question to look up in surprise, before a warm smile formed on her face seeing her favorite blonde for the first time that day.

"Naruto-kun! I'm so glad to see you." Mikoto said as she wrapped the blonde in question in a motherly hug before kissing him on the forehead. It seems you've been up to something today." she said playfully as she noticed the little spots of paint dotting his outfit, knowing of his exploits regarding the Hokage Monument. "You know, Sasuke-kun was asking about you since he saw you with someone he had never seen before today. Is my little Naruto-kun growing up? Have you found yourself a little girlfriend?" teased the matriarch.

Naruto slightly blushed and muttered to himself about Sasuke being a Teme before Mikoto took his hand to lead him into his apartment. "It's getting late, Naruto-kun. I don't want you to be out late at night." Mikoto didn't say it, but she was aware of how the villagers could treat him when enough of a drunken mob was formed; her trip to the ICU two years ago attested to that. _'Never again.'_ she thought solemnly.

As they shut the door to the apartment behind them, they sat down in Naruto's kitchen to catch up. Before long, Naruto's bottomless pit of a stomach began grumbling despite eating a sizeable bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's not even half an hour before.

As he began reaching for his cupboard to grab a pack of instant ramen, Mikoto spoke up. "You know, eating nothing but instant ramen is detrimental to your health, Naruto-kun. You must eat proper meals every once in awhile at least!" said the Uchiha matriarch. "But Mikoto-oba, I can't afford anything BUT instant ramen!" complained Naruto. "I'm aware of that, which is why I brought these!" the Uchiha said proudly as she pulled from a bag she was holding some rice balls. "I made these myself, I hope you'll like them as much as Itachi-kun and Sasuke-kun do."

As she handed him the rice balls, he took a big bite out of one of them and immediately fell in love."These are amazing!" exclaimed the blonde. Mikoto's pride swelled upon hearing that, happy that her rice balls were enjoyed by the people she cared for the most. "So, Naruto-kun, tell me about what happened today. I love listening to your stories." she said, her head resting in her hands with a smile on her face as she paid rapt attention to the blond

(One Lengthy and Hyperactive Explanation Later)

"I see! Well I'm glad you enjoyed yourself today. I would like to meet this Uchiha friend of yours sometime, she seems like quite a nice girl from what I've heard."

"She is! She's my first friend besides you, Sasuke-teme, Itachi, and Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-neechan, and Jiji!" Her heart melted as she watched Naruto act so passionately about the bonds he was finally beginning to form. She was so proud of him for coming such a long way.

One thing was bothering her; however,but she couldn't tell that to Naruto. _'An Uchiha I've never heard of? That's strange.. I want to meet this girl that Naruto regards so highly.'_ "Well Naruto-kun, as much as I don't want to, I need to go ahead and go back to the compound. Sasuke-kun and Itachi-kun are probably wondering where I am, and I don't want to keep my husband waiting. I'll see you tomorrow, my little fox." She bent down in front of him to give him one more hug and kiss before she left Naruto to his own devices. He yawned as the first signs of exhaustion were coming after the eventful day. He decided to retire to his bedroom and get some rest, changing into his pajamas and putting on the nightcap that Mikoto had gotten for him for his birthday two years ago.

As Naruto laid down on his bed, a figure could be seen perched on a tree just outside his bedroom window, watching him. Said figure wore a distinctive ferret-like mask, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

 **A/N: Yo, Awesomesauce here. I just wanted to give credit where credit is due, and show my appreciation. I'd like to shout out Digitize27 for writing one of my favorite Naruto stories on this site, Sage. It was a huge inspiration for this fanfic, and I hope that this one that I'm writing can amount to even half of what that story amounted to be. It was essentially the catalyst for me to start wanting to write fanfiction in the first place, and I thank you for writing such a good story. Feel free to go read it for yourself, I highly recommend it. Also feel free to let them know that yours truly appreciates their work.**

 **/s/9486691/1/Sage**

 **Also, I'd like to shout out Kenchi618, for writing many awesome Naruto fanfics that I've read as well as inadvertently showing me how a good fanfic should be structured and written. Feel free to show him some love from me as well, and read his stories.**

 **/u/2218705/Kenchi618**

 **Awesomesauce out.**


	2. Suspicions

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto by any means. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto_

 _ **A/N: Reviews:**_

 _ **thor94: I plan on keeping Naruto mostly canon, although there will be some subtle changes. For example, his hyperactivity and such will still be there, but I will make him a bit smarter, and things like that.**_

 **Chapter 2: Suspicions**

Naruto was bored. Very bored. Fugaku and Mikoto went to a clan meeting, so he could not pester the former, or chat with the latter. Sasuke was nowhere to be found (most likely being swarmed by fangirls), so he couldn't hang out with him for the time being, and finally, Itachi was off on a mission, doing whatever ANBU captains do.

He decided to go and meet up with his newfound friend. However, he had no way of contacting her, nor did he know where she lived. Logically, Naruto assumed that she would reside at the Uchiha clan compound, so he made his way there in search of the eccentric Uchiha.

Upon entering the clan grounds, he received looks from many Uchiha walking around. Not the usual distastefulness he usually received for being the 'demon brat', but rather a look that meant to say _'You don't belong here.'_ However, he expected this as he knew of the majority of the Uchiha clan's 'stick-in-the-ass' attitude.

Asking numerous passersby if they knew the name Mitomi within their clan, to which they all said no, Naruto was becoming increasingly frustrated. That is, until he saw Mikoto and Sasuke walking home from a grocery trip.

"Oi! Mikoto-oba! Teme!" called out the blonde Uzumaki. "Dobe?" questioned Sasuke. "Yo!" He said with a grin. "Listen, I'm having a bit of trouble finding my friend. You think you could help me?" Seeing the perfect opportunity to piss him off, Sasuke replied with "You mean that girl I saw you with yesterday? Isn't that your new girlfriend?" Sasuke teased, accomplishing what he had set out to do.

"Oi Teme! She's not my girlfriend!" shouted Naruto, a slight blush developing on his tan cheeks. "Oh Sasuke-kun.." Mikoto said sweetly. A little _too_ sweetly. She grabbed at Sasuke's earlobe and pulled. Hard. "Ow! Owowow! Kaa-san!" yelled the obviously in pain Sasuke. "What have I told you about teasing Naruto-kun?" Mikoto scolded, earning a laugh from Naruto. "Ha! Serves you right, Teme!" Now Naruto was at the receiving end of Mikoto's Mimitabu Puru no Jutsu (Earlobe Pull Jutsu). "Both of you stop fighting! Now help me carry all these bags back to the house!" They did as asked while nursing their comically swollen earlobes before Naruto excused himself to continue his search for a certain Uchiha Mitomi. Since she was not in the Uchiha compound, nor did anyone in the compound know who she was-which was rather strange-he decided to head over to the next best place to find kids whom people didn't know.

The orphanage.

(Back Streets of Konohagakure)

Naruto walked along the less-developed back streets of Konoha; unpaved dirt roads snaked about all of the buildings. These were more of the traditional, wooden style rather than the concrete and metal buildings lining the more populated and developed majority of Konohagakure. He progressed toward his regretful objective, twinges of fear emerging onto the blonde's whiskered face. All of a sudden, he balled his fists and steeled his resolve, increasing his pace with a look of determination etching his scowling features. _'If I don't get over this now, I never will.'_

As he rounded one of the many street corners, the building that harbored a lot of Naruto's darker childhood memories came into view. His pace slowed back down to that of a slow walking speed. Gathering his thoughts, Naruto stood mere yards away from the orphanage.

He then walked up to the rather weathered wooden door before knocking it with three tentative but forceful taps. After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman with brown hair done up in a bun, gray strands visible all along the length of her hair, dressed in a simple white dress with a dull dark green apron. She looked down at Naruto with an indifferent look on her face before it morphed into a look of anger. "What do you want, brat? I'm not taking you back after I finally got rid of your problematic ass. Did you get evicted from your shitty little apartment because the landlord finally had enough of you?" the matron asked scathingly, a cruel smirk now adorned on her face.

Naruto scoffed, his voice adopting a sarcastic tone. "As if, lady! I actually came to take your picture because he wouldn't believe me when I told him how much of an ugly old bat you are!"

The matron was taken aback by his outburst, before she processed what he had just said to her. A scowl marred her slightly wrinkled features. "Why you little shit! I should beat your ass for that! The only reason I won't is because I'd have Sandaime-sama on my case again." she growled.

"So what does the devil child want from me now, eh? Was my husband not enough for you?" she questioned disdainfully, her voice coming out slightly more ragged. Naruto just got straight to the point. "Where's Uchiha Mitomi? I wanna see her." he asked. "Mitomi? I don't know who the hell that is, and if she's an Uchiha, she shouldn't be here! Now stop wasting my time, demon!" the matron shouted before slamming the door in Naruto's face, knocking him onto his backside.

' _She doesn't live in the orphanage? Then where the hell is she, -ttebayo?!'_ His musings were cut short when he felt a sudden breeze pick up behind him. When he turned around, he saw the very person he was searching for walking up to him. "Mitomi? I was just looking for you!" the hyperactive boy exclaimed. "Why is that, Naruto-san?" questioned the monotone Uchiha. "Because I wanted to see you, duh!" he chirped. Naruto wanted to ask about where she lived, but he decided against it because he didn't wish to scare off his first friend outside of his close circle of people. "I wanted to see if you'd like to do anything? It's getting kind of late, do you want me to introduce you to my family?" he asked. Mitomi stared at him for a moment before asking "You have family, Naruto-san?" the blonde smiled forlornly at that. "Well, they're not exactly real family, but I treat them like one; they're my precious people." he answered.

' _Precious people, huh?'_ she wondered, being unaccustomed to familial ties "Yes, Naruto-san. I would like that." she stated before she gave him another of her creepy smiles. "Great! Follow me!" Naruto took Mitomi's hand and lead her off toward the Uchiha compound.

(A Few Minutes Later- Front Gates of Uchiha Compound)

As they approached the clan grounds, Naruto noticed that nobody was out and about.

' _That's weird. It's too early to go to bed, isn't it? It's not even dinner time yet!'_

They walked through the gates emblazoned with the Uchiha fan, looking everywhere for signs of life. They turned corners and navigated through the seemingly abandoned streets, until he reached the clan head's house, where he knew Sasuke would be at this time.

As he turned the corner to walk to the front door, Naruto saw a trail of red on the dirt road.

' _What's this?'_ he wondered, following the mysterious trail until he came upon a gruesome sight. The original trail led to a lone Uchiha clan member, face down in the dirt, blood pooling around his body. Naruto jumped back in horror at the gruesome discovery before looking up and finding that he was only one of many victims lining the streets, red sprayed all over the roads and sides of buildings.

Naruto's head dropped, his bangs shadowing his eyes. He shook uncontrollably as tears started streaming down his face. When he looked up, his eyes were blood red, with slits instead of pupils. His whisker marks became more pronounced and his canines, fingernails, and toenails elongated.

' _ **No...no… What the hell is going on?! I need to find Sasuke, Mikoto-oba, and Itachi!'**_

He took off down the street at breakneck speeds, leaving Mitomi in the dust to observe the aftermath of the chaos. She stood there, frozen.

' _Danzo-sama.. just what did you allow to happen?'_ Mitomi thought in shock, or as much shock that could be mustered from the emotionally stripped child. _'And this foul chakra.. Could it be?'_

" **Mikoto-oba… Sasuke… Itachi… Don't die! Please tell me that you're alive!"**

He ran up to the clan head estate to find that there were no bodies outside, which relieved him somewhat. He charged through the door and made a mad dash towards the living room. What Naruto saw next would be burned into the deepest recesses of his memory for years to come. He saw Sasuke standing in front of him, frozen in fear and shock. Fugaku laid down in front of him in a heap, blood splattered all over the couch behind him. He looked up at a shadowed figure with a sword drawn.

The figure swung down with the weapon in what seemed like slow motion to Naruto. **"NOOO!"** he screamed in rage and sadness. Naruto saw her mouth move weakly when she looked at Sasuke and Naruto

"Na..o… Sas..e" he heard her whisper. Then there was nothing.

Naruto slowly turned his head to the assailant of his family, eyes red and filled with murderous intent.

" **WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"** he bellowed, shaking the house on its foundations.

"Really, Naruto-kun? You forget about me so easily?"

Only one person has that voice. That deep, monotone voice that had brought Naruto happiness in his dark past.

" **No… Itachi… WHY?!"**

At this point, Sasuke could hear and think coherently. He glanced to his left and saw his surrogate brother standing over his mother, who was now dead. He looked up at the person he thought was family, his cold eyes bored into Naruto and Sasuke, now standing side by side, glaring at who used to be their brother.

All of a sudden, his onyx eyes morphed into the Sharingan, or so it seemed. This version had a pinwheel shape, rather than the usual three tomoe surrounding the pupil.

"To test my new abilities." he stated calmly.

" **...What?"** Naruto asked, incredulously. **"Why not just kill us, too?!"**

"There is no value in killing the likes of you… My foolish brothers… If you want to kill me... curse me! Hate me! And live long and unsightly lives... Run away... run away... and cling to your pitiful existences. And you, my little brother" he said directly to Sasuke, "some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."

At that moment, Sasuke collapsed in a heap, unconscious. Naruto looked Itachi with absolute hatred.

He let out a high pitched wail, laced with bitterness and anger. Itachi's form dissolved into a murder of crows and then faded out of existence. Shortly after, Naruto's vision began going black. He then accompanied his brother, passed out on the floor.

(Inside of Naruto's Mindscape)

Naruto awoke in what appeared to be the streets of Konohagakure, but wasn't. Everything was in black and white, including Naruto himself, except for the sky which was painted a dark, blood red color.

Looking in front of him, he could see a figure squatting on a telephone pole in the distance. As he focused upon said figure, people began appearing from around street corners and milling about as if it was any other day in Konoha.

He noticed that these were all people he at least vaguely knew, people who had showed him some degree of kindness rather than hatred like the majority of the villagers. He saw the elderly Uchiha couple that stood out by the store that gave Naruto and Sasuke sweets whenever they passed by, Iruka-sensei, the jonin commander Nara Shikaku, Mizuki-sensei, and the Ichiraku's, among others.

Suddenly, the figure disappeared from the telephone pole with a Shunshin before reappearing in front of Naruto, revealing himself to be Uchiha Itachi in his ANBU captain gear. His strange, pinwheel-like Sharingan pattern blazing in his uncaring eyes as he unsheathed a tanto from his back, he began hacking and slashing away at anyone within his vicinity, painting the streets red the same way as the Uchiha clan compound. Naruto bore witness to this tragedy and clutched his head in agony from witnessing the amount of death around him. He screamed, wishing for this nightmare to end.

Naruto was distraught, a scream ripped out of his mouth faster than he was able to stop it. Backing away, he bumped into a solid mass. Tensing up, he mechanically shifted his head upwards, only to meet the gaze of Uchiha Itachi again."You're weak, Naruto. You claim that you wish to be Hokage one day, yet you can't protect those who actually care for your pitiful existence. I'm disappointed in you. Only seventy one hours, fifty nine minutes, and fifty nine seconds to go." Itachi droned.

Naruto blinked, only to open his eyes again in his original position, where the whole ordeal began. He glanced upward to see Itachi's form, still perched on the telephone pole, illuminated by the moonlight behind him. He watched as Itachi disappeared from the pole once more, witnessing the massacre over, and over, and over, and over again.

(Konohagakure no Sato- Emergency Evacuation Route- Hokage Monument)

Inside the dark tunnels of the Hokage Monument, soft footsteps could be heard echoing throughout. A figure was walking down one of the evacuation tunnels, before it stopped upon hearing the flapping of wings and the cawing of crows. The figure turned around to see a glowing pair of Sharingan eyes staring. "Sochi-kun! What of the clan? Did.. did you take care of it?" The figure asked with a feminine voice. "I have. Although there was a minor.. complication." stated the other figure, more deep and monotone. Moonlight illuminated the passage from a hole in the ceiling, revealing the two figures to be Uchiha Mikoto and Itachi.

"What sort of complication?" asked Mikoto worriedly. "Naruto-kun appeared as I trapped Sasuke in my genjutsu." Mikoto gasped in surprise before asking "What did you do to him? I hope that you didn't-" "No, I did not kill him, mother. I managed to entrap him within another genjutsu similar to Sasuke's. He is alive, although what happened after was rather disturbing." Seeing his mother's worried look, he elaborated. "As he fell to the ground unconscious, I felt a surge of gravity itself build before crashing down upon Naruto, leaving him in the center of a small crater within our home. At first I suspected the Kyuubi, but I did not feel any of it's energy aside from the killing intent directed towards my person when he initially fell into my trap." Mikoto released a shaky breath before speaking once more. "Did you make sure that everyone's death was as painless as possible?" tears fell down her face upon thinking of all of the faces she knew within her own clan, now dead. _'Damn your stupid coup, Fugaku.'_ She shuddered upon realizing just how much Naruto had saved her from experiencing the same fate. After she had met the blonde, his antics and mannerisms made her realize just how foolish the coup was. She had tried to convince Fugaku to adopt the same mindset as she, but he would have none of it.

She was brought back to reality when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up at her son's face, she saw deep pain and regret for what he had done in his now normal onyx eyes. "I have to go soon. ANBU will be on my trail soon once they realize what has happened, so I need to start making my way out of the village. This is goodbye, mother." He wrapped his mother in one final goodbye hug, Mikoto not wanting him to let go. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity to her, but in reality was only a few seconds. Itachi turned away and began running to the exit of the tunnel. As he reached the opening that overlooked the village, he turned back one last time, a tear falling down his face with his pinwheel Sharingan blazing once more.

(Uchiha Clan Compound)

"Naruto... Naruto!" _'Why won't he wake up?'_ she thought, concerned for his well-being. Naruto started screaming frantically and convulsing. Every few minutes, she had had to put him under with a slight sedative stored in a senbon needle, to prevent him from harming himself. "If he acted like this unchecked any longer, he might have gone into shock."

Staring at the young boy, seemingly looking like he was somewhat at peace, although every few seconds he would appear to have a wince of pain, she ironically thought that the boy seemed… kind of cute as he was sleeping. _'Wait… what is this emotion I am feeling? My face feels hot… What is happening to me? Is this what it feels like when you are attached to another individual?'_

Her musings were cut short when four cloaked and masked figures descended from the rooftops surrounding Mitomi and Naruto's location.

"Ferret." said one of the figures in a monotone voice. "We are here to collect the jinchuuriki. Step away from the boy." he ordered.

"...I am sorry Hawk-san, but I cannot let you do that." she replied to the masked figure who had spoken.

"Do you intend to go against Danzo-sama's orders? Are you betraying ROOT?" the masked figure asked calmly, albeit surprised. "...Yes. I will not allow Naruto face the conditioning we had to go through."

"Then you leave us no choice. Men, ready yourselves. Uchiha Mitomi, you have been charged with treason of the highest margin and will be dealt with accordingly."

The men readied their weapons not noticing the blonde haired boy walking over to Mitomi. Naruto's eyes were different. Instead of the the bright blue eyes that radiated happiness, they were now purple and ringed, leaking with hatred.

"N...Naruto?" Mitomi was able to let out while surprised from Naruto's new expression.

He was beside Mitomi at this time. The ANBU still in battle formation looking upon the blonde haired boy.

"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)."

Naruto held onto Mitomi like his life depended on it. Outside of Naruto and Mitomi's immediate surrounding area, the air pressure seemed to increase around the ROOT members, and out of nowhere, they were all blown backwards. Two skidding to a stop on their backs after sliding down the road for several meters, while the others were smashed through the walls of buildings as if they were paper, killing them on impact.

"Banshō Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All of Creation)."

The two remaining ROOT operatives found themselves traveling through the air rapidly, back towards the outstretched arms of Naruto.

The blonde boy then suddenly clamped his hands around their necks as they came within reach. He lifted them up as much as he could, which wasn't a lot for an eight year old boy, to where they stood up, struggling against his grip. Naruto tightened his hands around their throats, and didn't stop until a sickening crunch was heard coming from both of his assailants. They went limp, and Naruto promptly dropped their lifeless bodies to the ground.

He slowly walked back towards Mitomi, who stood there frozen. _'Is that… Naruto?'._ Before he could get to her; however, he lurched forward and fell face first on to the ground, unconscious once again.

(5 Minutes Later)

"Na..o."

' _What? Where am I? What's going on?'_

"N..uto."

' _Who is that? What is happening?'_

"Naruto!"

Naruto's eyes slowly opened. After he cleared the spots out of his vision, he rapidly sat up, causing Mitomi to jump back, wary of her friend.

"What happened? Who're they?" he asked in quick succession.

"Calm down, Naruto-san. To answer your questions: One, you passed out after you saw Itachi. Two, they were operatives from a secret organization that I promise I will fill you in on later. You… killed them."

"WHAT?!" Naruto blurted out. "How?! I don't remember anything!"

"You don't remember what you just did?" Mitomi asked incredulously. "No, I don't remember a thing."

Suddenly, Naruto clutched his head, screaming in pain, recalling all of the events that took place inside of Itachi's hellish world. His face fell, bangs shadowing his eyes. He proceeded to wrap Mitomi in a hug, sobbing uncontrollably. After what seemed like an eternity to Mitomi, since she was not used to such close contact, he pulled away. He came to the realization that this was in fact the real world and not a genjutsu and surveyed his surroundings, turning towards the remains of the Uchiha clan head's mansion, eyes widening at the huge crater in the ground.

"What the hell?" he asked more to himself than anyone in particular. He then got up to his feet and walked around, recounting the events that had gone on not even 30 minutes before. As he walked by what used to be a mirror in the bathroom, he looked at himself with awe. Naruto ran up to the reflective surface and touched his face.

"What...what happened to my eyes?"


	3. Revelations

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: *sigh* No, I don't own Naruto._

 **Chapter 3: Revelations**

"What are these words in my head? They're swirling around in my mind! Make them stop!" Naruto said while clutching his ears.

Mitomi watched the young Uzumaki drop to the floor once again, in pain. She was concerned for her comrade, but she didn't know what to do in order to help him. Frankly, it was frustrating.

 _'Is this what friends feel when concerned for one another?'_

Mitomi was snapped out of her musings when she heard a loud groan. Turning, she saw that Naruto had stopped rolling about the floor and was now in the fetal position with his eyes clenched. The sight brought a pang of pain to Mitomi, but she didn't know why. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she quietly walked over to Naruto's hunched body and laid a hand on his shoulder. She then spoke.

"Uzumaki-san, I apologize for the intrusion, but we must leave shortly. Either the Hokage's ANBU or Danzo-sama's ROOT are sure to come investigate what has happened." She said quietly, yet sternly.

Taking a shaky breath, Naruto slowly opened his eyes, revealing their new ringed design. Despite herself, she couldn't stop from staring deep into the amethyst pools. They were fascinatingly purple, almost glowing. The color covered the entire eye, including the sclera. Among the eye were several ripple-like circles originating from the pupil, which was a deep black. The colors blended so well together that Mitomi found herself utterly transfixed by their beauty. It was only when Naruto shifted she broke her gaze, only to see Naruto with a nervous expression on his features, a bright red blush taking it's place on his cheeks.

 _'Why is he...oh.'_ she thought as she realized their close proximity. Giving a mental shrug she quickly got up, offering her hand to Naruto, who nervously accepted.

Naruto became flustered before quickly regaining his composure, but not before asking questions in a rapid fire fashion.

"What do these eyes mean? What is ROOT? Who are the guys that I… killed?"

"As much as I would like to answer your questions Uzumaki-san, we must leave the area before any potential enemies converge on our position. Could we perhaps converse about these topics once we reach the safety of your home?"

"Sure, Mitomi-chan."

With that, he grabbed Mitomi by her hand and lead her to his humble abode, eager to get his questions answered.

(10 Minutes Later- Naruto's Apartment)

Once they got situated after Naruto gave her the 'house tour', which mostly consisted of her cringing at all of the trash littering the floor and how dirty his eating utensils and appliances were, they sat down on Naruto's semi-made bed.

"Now, Uzumaki-san, you may ask the questions that I was unable to answer at our previous location, preferably one at the time, so I may answer to the best of my abilities."

"Okay," he began, "What is ROOT?"

"ROOT is an underground organization run by the man known as Shimura Danzo. He trains shinobi from the ground up, stripping them of any emotions that they possess. Danzo-sama views ninja as tools. He takes in all kinds of shinobi, regardless of the clan that birthed them, and trains them to do his every whim. The organization as a whole specializes in the missions that Konoha's main force cannot, in order to save face. Things such as assassinations of political figures, or espionage in the other Great Nations, as well as the minor villages in between, things like that."

This took a moment for it to sink in for Naruto. As far as he knew, he had never heard of anyone named Danzo.

"Why have I not heard of him before? I know about the village's elders and advisors, the old hag Koharu and her bastard teammate Homura. He seems like the kind of man that would be an active member of the council."

"He is, but other than Hokage-sama and the other members of the council, no one knows of him. He likes to rule from the shadows."

"Well, if you can talk so much about him, how come he hasn't been somehow revealed to the public?" Naruto asked, a quizzical look on his face, his head resting on his hands.

"Under normal circumstances, after emotional conditioning, Danzo would place an intricate seal on our tongues, too complicated for us grunts inexperienced in fuuinjutsu to break. However, he took a risk with me, as for why I am not certain, and did not place the seal on my person. If anyone else tried divulging information about Danzo, compromising his position, the seal would flare up, inflicting the offending subject with massive pain all over their body, to the point where they almost die."

Naruto sat there, silently seething to himself, wondering how a person could do such a thing to his subordinates, until he remembered that Danzo views people like Mitomi as nothing but tools. This only served to enrage Naruto further. _'How could someone like that be allowed free reign in the village? No doubt spouting shit like_ 'It was for the good of Konoha' _or some bullshit like that! Surely Jiji knows of what the fuck is going on. Why doesn't he stop Danzo?'_

Naruto ended his inner monologue with himself to continue questioning his stoic companion. "And from that information, I guess that the people that I killed were ROOT operatives?" Mitomi nodded her head in confirmation. "You are correct Uzumaki-san."

"That brings me to my next question. About how I killed them... What happened?"

Mitomi put her finger to her chin in contemplation. "Well... After you initially rose from unconsciousness, you walked towards me and wrapped your arms around me, squeezing hard. You then muttered something that sounded like 'Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)'. Suddenly, the air pressure around us changed and the four ROOT ninja surrounding us flew backwards with what I could only describe as a push of gravity. This technique killed the first two, while it only sent the other two flying backwards. You raised your arms upward and outstretched your hands, and then said 'Banshō Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All of Creation)', or something of the sort. The two who survived the initial attack shot forwards, flying through the air until you caught them, crushing their throats and breaking their necks in the process. Shortly afterwards, after dropping them, you fell unconscious once again."

Naruto thought over what Mitomi had said and, as if she read his mind, she said "I believe that the techniques you used were aspects of the Rinnegan."

"That's the next thing I wanted to ask about." Naruto assumed that this 'Rinnegan' she referred to were what his new eyes were called. "What do my new eyes do? As far as I know, this isn't some sort of Uzumaki clan kekkei genkai, so what does it mean now that I have them?"

"I do not know the specifics of this doujutsu; however, I do know of its supposed origins and significance in the shinobi world. The Rinnegan originally belonged to the Rikudou Sennin. Rikudou Sennin was viewed as the original shinobi, and his doujutsu was regarded as the most venerable of the Three Great Doujutsu: the Byakugan, Sharingan, and Rinnegan. As the original shinobi, it was said he created modern Ninjutsu. The Rinnegan was regarded as a god of creation when the world was racked with chaos, and as a weapon of destruction which could return everything to nothingness. Usage of the Rinnegan was said to give the user mastery over all six forms of chakra nature manipulation."

Naruto paid rapt attention to Mitomi's story, all the while touching his face in absolute awe. _'I have the same powers as the original Rikudou Sennin? Awesome!_ He mused to himself, a cheeky grin on his face.

"So can I turn this thing off?" Naruto asked. He loved his new legendary doujutsu, but he wanted to still have his old blue eyes.

"No, I am afraid not. If you have not been channeling chakra into your eyes this whole time, then I think that it is safe to say that it is permanent."

Naruto's face fell marginally, but picked himself back up, his smile reappearing on his face. He would take these new badass eyes over his old ones any day.

"Speaking of your new eyes, I believe that it would be best if you cover them, at least for the time being. I think that the revelation would only serve to make Danzo-sama or others come after you, seeking to either take your eyes or to recruit you, forcefully if you refuse."

He didn't like the sound of either of those, so he took her advice and began scouring his apartment for something to use to cover his new eyes. He found an old pair of sunglasses in his closet and put them on. He didn't want to wear them 24/7, but he'll take that over the shitstorm that would surely ensue if he didn't.

Putting his hands up in a gesture as if to ask _'How about this?'_ Mitomi gave him a thumbs-up in response. If he didn't have the blonde hair or whisker marks, he looked almost like an Aburame. Satisfied, he put his sunglasses on his bedside table. "Now that that's settled, how about we go to bed? It's already after midnight, and I don't want to get bitched at by Mikoto-oba for not sleeping..." He trailed off. "Damn it..." He clenched his fists and looked down.

"That is a good idea Uzumaki-san." said Mitomi, wanting to change the subject, seeing Naruto's pained expression.

"Yeah." He stated dryly. He perked up a little bit and said "Hey, why don't you stay here for the night? I know you can't go back to that bastard Danzo, and I don't want you sleeping outside."

"I would like that, Uzumaki-san." she said with a small smile. He didn't show it, but he was ecstatic to have someone sleep over. He never got the luxury of hanging out with the other kids, with the exception of Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru, but they were all too busy with clan business being the heirs to be able to do things such as spend the night. Same thing with Sasuke, although in addition to that, Fugaku always decided against it. "Sweet! And by the way, just call me Naruto, I'm not much for formalities."

"As you wish, Naruto-san." With a sigh, he turned to go to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. Naruto swore he thought he saw Mitomi with a smug smile on her face. He also went into his closet and grabbed a t-shirt with a red leaf symbol emblazoned on it and a pair of black shorts for Mitomi to use as sleepwear. He didn't want her being too uncomfortable while she slept, after all.

After they both got changed, Naruto grabbed a small old mattress from a storage closet and laid it out on the floor, throwing a blanket and a pillow on top. He went over to his front door and shut off the light, turning back around to climb into his mattress while she stayed in his bed.

"Goodnight Naruto-san" Mitomi whispered.

"Night, Mitomi-chan."

Naruto lay there, hands behind his head, mulling over the day's events. Tears began to stream down his cheeks quietly when he remembered what Itachi had done. _'Damn you, you bastard! Mikoto-oba... Damn it!'_

With that, our hero found himself slowly drifting into the blissful realm of sleep.

(Unknown Location)

Naruto realized that all of a sudden, he didn't feel sleepy anymore. He opened his eyes, only to reveal that he was standing in what seemed to be a sewer, in ankle-deep water. He looked around, wondering what this place was. Out of nowhere, a sense of foreboding hit the blonde like a brick. It came from one of the paths branching off of where Naruto currently was standing. Despite himself, he walked towards the feeling. He navigated the dark pathways as off he had done so a million times before. He found himself standing in a large square room, with what appeared to be a cage on the far side of it. In the middle of the massive wall of iron bars, there was a piece of paper with the kanji for the word 'seal' on it. The strong sense of danger he had felt before were rolling off of that cage in waves.

While investigating the room he now found himself in, Naruto heard a deep, throaty chuckle eminate from behind the bars.

 **"So the Warden finally comes to see his prisoner. What did you come here for, kit? To draw upon my power?"**

Taken aback by the voice he heard, he managed to say "What do you mean, 'draw upon my power'? I don't even know who you are. For that matter, where the fuck am I? What is this place?"

Naruto heard that same chuckle, before he heard it speak again.

 **"You don't remember, ningen? When you found the aftermath of the Uchiha clan?"**

He spat the last part of his sentence out, as if the mere mention of the clan was a curse.

Naruto recalled what he had seen and felt when he came across all of the bodies littering the streets, not something that he wanted to do very often. He remembered feeling a sudden rush of power and bloodlust, to get revenge on whomever did it. He also remembered his fingernails and toenails suddenly becoming longer, and he began seeing everything in red.

"That was you? You made me feel like that?" asked Naruto, still wary of the overwhelming presence of whatever was behind the cage.

 **"Indeed it was ningen. I gave you a mere sliver of my chakra."**

He gulped at that. Only a sliver of chakra was enough to make him go through a fucking _tranformation_?!

He shivered at the thought of how powerful this entity was. It dawned on him suddenly that the thing said it gave him chakra. How could he be given chakra when Mitomi and Naruto were the only ones present? That means...

"Are you inside of me?" Naruto questioned the presence.

 **"Quite the observant one, aren't we ningen? Yes, I am sealed inside of you. As for our location, we are in your mindscape."**

"Okay... As for my final question, for now, who or what are you?"

Naruto heard shuffling behind the cage before loud footsteps boomed throughout the large room. The figure approached the bars and stopped when he was feet away from them, sitting on its haunches.

It was gigantic. The creature looked like a fox, supersized times one million. It had matted orange fur, black rings surrounding its red, slitted eyes. It had razor-sharp teeth and equally sharp claws, with nine tails swaying every which way behind it.

From the fox's grin, Naruto guessed it picked up on his shock.

He had his suspicions, and he seriously hoped he was wrong, but he asked the giant fox a question he was dreading the answer to.

"Are... are you the Kyuubi?"

Its grin only widened at that. **"Yes meat-sack, I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the mightiest of the bijuu!"**

"How are you sealed within me? I thought the Yondaime killed you!"

 **"Don't believe everything that the stupid Academy tells you, kit. They probably told your class that so that they wouldn't be aware of me being sealed inside of you. Tell me, are you aware of my attack on Konoha 8 years ago?"**

"Yeah, I am."

 **"Instead of killing me, like the bastards of Konoha told you, that blasted mortal used** **Shiki Fūjin** (Dead Demon Consuming Seal) **to seal me away! He summoned the fucking Shinigami himself! However, he only sealed half of me. The other half, he sealed inside of you, flesh-sack!"**

Naruto stood there in disbelief. He wanted to deny it. He wanted to say that it was all a lie, but the proof was right there, in front of his eyes.

 **"It was bad enough that he had to seal me into a brat, but then that very same brat had to obtain Father's eyes! You are undeserving of such an honor, ningen. I swear to you, once I claw my way out of this seal, you will be the first thing that I destroy."**

"Wait, what do you mean 'Father's eyes'? What are you talking about?"

Cursing himself for his slip of the tongue, Kyuubi huffed and snarled out **"Begone, ningen! You have tried my patience** **long enough. I already answered your other questions."**

Cursing the overgrown fox under his breath, Naruto felt a sudden tug in his gut. He looked down at his body to reveal that he was slowly disappearing from his mindscape.

"I'll be back here, sometime, furball."

 **"Hmph."**

And with that, everything went black.

(Outside of Naruto's Mindscape- Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto was brought back to reality as sunlight shined down through his window into his eyes. He groggily sat up, noticing that his room was much neater than the previous night.

"Morning, Mitomi-chan." he said, only to be met with silence. "Mitomi-chan?"

' _Maybe she went to the bathroom... I wonder if I should check up on Sasuke?'_

Naruto got up from his bed stretching, giving out a loud yawn before blinking tiredly. He became surprised at how neat his home was, noticing that there wasn't even a speck of dust or trash to be seen.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a piece of paper on a countertop. Curious, as he had never seen this before, he went to investigate. He then picked the paper up from the counter and saw that it was in fact a letter addressed to him. This was a shock, as Naruto never received a letter before, even Jiji simply came in person when he wanted to talk. Now even more interested than he was before, Naruto eagerly let his eyes roam over the parchment, widening at what was written.

 _Dear Naruto-san,_

 _When you read this letter, I will hopefully be long gone, I find myself sad to say we will more than likely not meet again for a very long time, if ever again. I must leave because I am now considered a traitor to ROOT and would be killed if I stayed in Konoha any longer. I apologize for not being able to say this in person, but I simply could not wait for you to wake up to tell you this, nor could I risk involving you in this more than I already have. I want you to know that I am glad to have been able to consider you a friend, and will continue to do so._

 _With my deepest apologies,_

 _Uchiha Mitomi._

"No... No! What the hell is she thinking?"

Naruto quickly got up and rapidly threw some old clothes on, then ran outside, only to run back inside and grab his sunglasses before anybody saw his new eyes. Once he made it to to Hokage Monument, he began scanning over the village in an attempt to find his friend. One thing that he had noticed since obtaining his doujutsu was that it greatly enhanced his vision.

After about a minute of futile searching, he realized that if she was leaving the village, she would have to pass by the gates. He hoped that he wasn't too late.

 _'Damn it! I have to find her! I won't let her go out on her own!'_

He began his mad dash towards the gates when he felt a presence invade his mind.

 **"Shut the fuck up meat-sack! I'm trying to sleep! Ever since you visited me, I have awakened and can now read your thoughts as well as communicate with you until I sever our link, which I haven't done yet."**

Naruto stopped in his tracks for only a second before taking off running again. _'Kyuubi?'_

 **"Yes, meat-sack. It is I, the Great Kyuu-"**

 _'Yeah, yeah furball. I don't need your shit right now, I need to find Mitomi-chan!'_

 **"Hmph. No respect for your betters, I see."**

 _'Stuff it, fuzzball. Can you help me find Mitomi-chan?'_

 **"And why should I be helping** _ **you**_ **of all things?"**

 _'Because it's been eight years, and it's about time that you paid your rent.'_

 **"Fine, but don't expect me to help you all the time meat-sack, because mark my words, when I get out of this damn seal you'll be the first one I devour."**

 _'You've already said that, furball. Now hurry up and help me!'_

He then felt the presence leave his mind, followed by a surge of power course through his body. He underwent a similar transformation to the one when he was in the Uchiha district the previous day; but this time the only notable changes were that his whisker marks were more pronounced and his hair took on a more mangy appearance

He could feel the Kyuubi's chakra gathering into his nose, heightening his sense of smell. It only took a matter of time before he caught a whiff of a familiar scent. He could tell it was Mitomi; she wasn't very far off, only about 5 minutes away at the rate of speed that he was currently traveling, thanks to the Kyuubi's chakra.

' _Please don't be gone yet, Mitomi-chan!'_

Naruto was jumping from rooftop to rooftop and quickly arrived at the gate, surprising the 'Eternal Chunin' Izumo and Kotetsu, who were stationed at their usual positions behind the booth that sits directly next to the massive entrance of Konohagakure.

' _Isn't that the Nine Tails brat?'_ Izumo thought. They received word that they were to take Naruto in for questioning if they were to come across him, as his last known location had been at the Uchiha compound where they had found the bodies of two unfamiliar ninja, ANBU by the looks of their masks and combat armor. Suddenly, the two gate guards noticed that it required a lot of force to move their bodies, and even then their movements were sluggish. It felt as though gravity itself were weighing down on them, the force growing exponentially and before long they lost consciousness due to the strain it put on their bodies.

"Naruto?" he heard a feminine voice behind him. He turned around to reveal the very person he was searching for. "Mitomi-chan!" he called out.

"You are an idiot." she stated blandly, causing Naruto to sweatdrop. "I could feel the malicious chakra beginning to permeate the area around you. Do not use your power so recklessly like that, you risk putting yourself in serious danger." Naruto was puzzled at this. She spoke as if she knew the burden that he carried, which he was sure would have scared her away by now, or at least cause her to hate him.

"Wait, you know about..?"

"Of course I know. Danzo-sama briefed me on your 'tenant' in order to explain why he expressed interest in you."

"And you don't hate me for it?"

"Of course not, how can I hate you for something you have no control over?"

It immediately felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders. He was relieved that he wouldn't be hated by his new friend, but the atmosphere was ruined when he saw Mitomi tense up slightly. He too tensed up when his Kyuubi-enhanced nostrils picked up many new smells converging on their position. "Oh... Shit." he muttered rather lamely

"Naruto, you need to get out of here, now." she stated. Her tone implied that she would not take no for an answer. "No! I'm not leaving you here." Naruto declared, not backing down.

"Did you not read my letter? ROOT is en route to kill me. Danzo-sama does not like loose ends. If they find you with me, they will take you and force you through various means to join them, none of them pleasant by any stretch of imagination." she explained in her surprisingly still monotone voice, given the urgency of the situation

"Then we leave together! If I were to leave you to die at the hands of that bastard Danzo, I would never forgive myself. I don't abandon those precious to me. That's my nindo, 'ttebayo!" Although he didn't say it, he knew he was in deep shit after it was revealed he killed those two ROOT nin. One can't simply get away with murdering two village shinobi, after all. He'd be taken in and charged with treason.

The ex-ROOT operative stared at Naruto with marginally widened eyes before her usual impassive face began to sport a smile. Not a rehearsed or fake, but a genuine, grateful smile.

"If you are absolutely sure about this…" she trailed off, noticing Naruto's look of determination

 _'I'm sorry Sasuke...Jiji...Ayame-neechan and Teuchi-ojisan. I'll be back one day, and that's a promise! Believe it!'_

 **A/N: I'd like to shout out a user by the name of I-R-Stormzz; thank you very much for informing me of the inconsistencies within this chapter. They have since been corrected, and I thank you for the respectful constructive criticism in your review.**

 **Awesomesauce out.**


	4. On The Run

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine… yet._

 **Chapter 4: On The Run**

Naruto was sprinting through the trees towards the border of Hi no Kuni, all the while dodging various types projectiles, varying from kunai to fuuma shuriken. As he was running for his life, Mitomi was running damage control behind him, shooting down the thrown weapons with her own well-placed senbon needles. Naruto had to fight the urge to scream when one of them got past Mitomi's guard and sliced his cheek. Throughout all of this, there was only one thought on Naruto's mind.

 _'How the hell did things turn out this way?!'_

(Flashback- 30 Minutes Ago- Gates of Konohagakure no Sato)

 _Before Naruto and Mitomi could begin heading out, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by what appeared to be a combination of both ROOT and ANBU shinobi._

 _Mitomi tensed, quickly getting into a somewhat strange fighting stance._

'Whatthe hell? It looks like how those pale-eyed bastards fight, but it reminds me of how Itachi and Sasuke-teme fight too… Where'd she learn how to do that?' _Naruto thought before slapping himself mentally. She was a former member of a top-secret organization that was lead by a warhawk who loved to train his 'tools' for battle, where else would she learn it?'_

 _The ANBU and ROOT shinobi had yet to pounce on the two kids, Mitomi was confused before she realized that this was the first time any of the ANBU had seen a ROOT member._

 _Before she could take advantage of the momentary confusion, one of the ANBU, presumably the leader, stepped forward to address their fellow newcomers._

 _"As a member of Konohagakure no Sato's ANBU task force, I demand that you cease and desist and come quietly for questioning." The ANBU said._

 _At first, Naruto thought that the ANBU was speaking to them, before realizing that his attention was focused on the squad of ROOT members._

 _None of the ROOT members replied. Instead, they all shifted simultaneously into fighting stances._

 _Mitomi realized that, with the direction this was heading, they were quite literally in the middle of a brewing fight. Quickly, she grabbed Naruto and pulled him to the side so that they wouldn't be caught in the crossfire._

 _She then began leading him toward the exit before they were stopped by another ANBU, who simply stood there to block them from exiting the village. Soon, the ANBU leader began speaking again._

 _"This is your final chance, lower your guard or we will use lethal f-URK" The ANBU leader was cut off when one of the ROOT members chucked a kunai at blinding speeds toward him, lodging itself in his throat._

 _What followed next was mass chaos._

 _Both sides, in tandem with each other, exploded into a massive fight. The likes of which was so chaotic and fast-paced Naruto couldn't even catch a glimpse of what was happening. He looked up to see the ANBU that was blocking their path was now suddenly sprawled on the ground. Mitomi acted without a moment of hesitation and quickly pulled Naruto into a full sprint, making a break for the border._

 _Naruto asked "What's going on?! What are we doing?!"_

 _Seconds later, Mitomi responded "The two factions are so engaged with each other that if we act now, we may be able to gain a head start in the chase that is inevitably going to follow."_

 _Naruto nodded, though it went unseen by his companion, and broke into a run as well._

 _Soon they hit the forest and quickly began jumping through trees. Naruto had more difficulty with this, but quickly got a handle on it, finding it similar to when he ran away from ANBU when he pulled his pranks._

 _As they were running through the trees, they were suddenly being pelted with thrown objects, evident by the loud THUNKS that Naruto heard at the base of his feet. Glancing down for a moment, Naruto saw that the objects were none other than shuriken._

 _His movements became faster as he worked to both dodge the shuriken and outrun the ninja that were following them. Glancing beside him, he saw Mitomi wasn't even batting an eyelash at their predicament, she was even fast enough to return fire by jumping into the air, spinning around and launching a handful of senbon towards their pursuers._

 _Naruto looked on in awe before being brought back to reality by a kunai that embedded itself in a tree trunk,a little_ too _close to where his head was._

(End Flashback)

Naruto was ripped out of his thoughts when he was suddenly tackled down by Mitomi, causing them both to sail into the bushes below. Naruto was quick to recover as he got up, about to fire off a comment before Mitomi's hand quickly clamped over his mouth. It was then out of the corner of his eye that he saw the familiar three-tomoed pattern of the Sharingan in his friend's eyes. The tomoes were spinning and Mitomi had a look of concentration on her face as she put up her hand in a half-ram seal.

Before Naruto could ask what the fuck she was doing, he heard the footfalls of their ROOT persuers coming closer. Panicking, he began to flail about, his warning cries muffled from Mitomi's hand. The only response was a glare from the Uchiha, her Sharingan eyes boring into his own Rinnegan ones behind his sunglasses.

It was then that Naruto came to the conclusion that his only friend had gone batshit crazy and was trying to get them killed.

Before he could once again perform the sacred flail-around-in-a-panic ritual, the ROOT shinobi finally touched down, not even ten feet away from them.

He gave one last panicked glare at his Uchiha companion, only to not even be graced with her gaze, as her attention was completely focused on the four enemy ninja before them.

The ROOT ninja began to quickly look around, searching for the children. Naruto's heart stopped when one of the ninja's eyes roamed over to their location. He sat stock-still as his breathing hitched. Throughout this entire experience, Naruto only had one thought prominent in his mind:

 _'I'm going to die.'_

However, to Naruto's utter confusion, the shinobi simply turned and went to search the surrounding area with his comrades. After what felt like hours of waiting, the ROOT nin simply jumped into the trees and disappeared.

After a moment, Mitomi's iron-clad grip on his mouth loosened before falling from his face, only for her poor ears to be bombarded with a million questions. Some of the ones she could make out were:

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!"

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

"DID YOU SEE THAT ONE GUY? HE STARED RIGHT AT US AND DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OH MY GOD I'VE NEVER BEEN SO SCARED IN MY LIFE, WELL EXCEPT FOR LAST NIGHT BUT OTHER THAN THAT-" Not being able to take it anymore, Mitomi was able to experience a new emotion: anger. She hadn't felt this one since the incident at the gate. A tick mark formed on her head with every question before finally she reared her fist back and slammed it on to the top of poor Naruto's head.

Naruto howled with pain as he gripped his head, a large lump forming on top of it where Mitomi hit him. As soon as Mitomi retracted her fist, she regained control of herself and realized what she had done. The next few minutes were spent with an overly-apologetic Mitomi doting over Naruto's new head wound.

"Mitomi-chan… Mitomi-chan! It's okay!" he said, somewhat flustered at Mitomi's switch in attitude. "Sakura-chan did this almost daily back at the academy whenever I talked bad about Sasuke-teme. I'm used to it! Really!"

"...What?" she asked incredulously. "You're saying that you got hit like that every day...? I may not be a veteran practitioner of everyday human emotions, but I do not think that that is the proper way to interact with another person that you consider to be a friend, nor do I think that it is proper to hit said person over a comment made for another individual that they have attraction towards." She shuddered. "I dread the day when and if I begin a relationship if that is how I am supposed to act."

By this point, they were walking on the forest floor. Naruto stopped for a moment in contemplation, "Hey… What happened back there? How come we weren't found out? Was that one that saw us a friend or something?"

Mitomi let out an uncharacteristic, mirthless chuckle. "None of us in ROOT were friends. Danzo-sama had us train individually after… our emotional conditioning."

Although Naruto's curiosity was piqued, he didn't ask any further questions once he saw the hidden pain expressed in Mitomi's onyx eyes, which were downcast at the forest floor.

She perked up a bit once she began answering his original question. "As for what happened… I put a multi-layer genjutsu over our persons so that anyone looking over at our position at the time saw what it looked like if we weren't hiding there."

"Sweet! You gotta teach me that!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"I am afraid I cannot do that, Naruto-san." she drawled out in her usual monotone voice. "Since you are not an Uchiha and do not possess the Sharingan, the extent to which I can teach you would be basic genjutsu, nothing as advanced as what I had done.

"So.." Naruto uttered, trying to carry on the conversation "Where are we going, anyway?"

"I believe it would be wise to stop by one or two of Danzo-sama's old ROOT bases scattered around Hi no Kuni in order to stock ourselves with weapons and rations, if available. Since we are out in the open, an animal, bandit, or in the worst case, an enemy shinobi could find us. It would be nice to at least have something to defend ourselves with, as well as be able to eat. I have acquired basic hunting skills over the years, since ROOT often went on long term reconnaissance missions in other nations, and we couldn't exactly stop by a town while we were out, lest the enemy shinobi be alerted to our presence. And with the equipment we may find, along with my weapons that I have currently equipped, I may be able to scrounge up some fish when we pass by a body of water."

"Alright." Naruto said lamely. "About how long until we reach one of the bastard's old hideouts?"

"I would hazard a guess of about a day or two, as they are near the border of the country."

"EH?!" Naruto shouted comically, pointing a finger at his companion. "WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS, THEN?!"

"We hunt for food as we go." she stated matter-of-factly.

"Oi oi oi… No ramen for two days…" Naruto paled, sinking to his hands and knees, a raincloud appearing over his head.

Mitomi deadpanned at Naruto's antics before quickly regaining her wits at the sound of movement in the bushes near them.

She quietly pulled out a senbon as they were walking, and before Naruto could question her on what she was doing, she launched the weapon at the bush she heard the rustling come from.

She trudged over to the bush to see who or what was dumb enough to try and sneak up on her, and was surprised to see a rabbit, now pinned to the trunk of the tree behind it, dead.

"Dinner."

"...What?"

"We are eating this for dinner."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!"

"Don't give me that, Naruto-san. it is either we eat this, or we starve. Did you think that we would find instant ramen cups or a ramen stand out in the middle of the wilderness?"

"...Maybe…"

(An Hour of Trekking Through Endless Greenery Later- Forests of Hi no Kuni)

The duo found themselves staring at a wall of rocks.

Naruto deadpanned at Mitomi and then uttered "Um… not that I'm against staring at a _wall of rocks_ , but shouldn't we be looking for that fucker Danzo's bases, Mitomi-chan?"

"This is one of his bases."

"Oi. Mitomi-chan. I think you've overused your Sharingan. Again, this is a _fucking rock wall_."

"Didn't the Academy teach you to look 'underneath the underneath', Naruto-san?"

"Okay… What are we _really_ looking at, Mitomi-chan?" Naruto said, still deadpanning at the Sharingan wielder.

Not saying anything, Mitomi raised her left hand and put it on the rocks in front of her, while her right one formed a half-ram seal. A rumbling noise was heard from behind the wall before a pathway opened up, revealing a long corridor going into the mountain they were currently standing next to.

"What was that about _'just a rock wall'_ , Naruto-san?" she asked with a sly smile when she saw Naruto, whose jaw was dropped to the floor in a comical fashion, pointing at the opening with wide eyes.

"Wha… How…?"

Naruto was brought back from his musings when he heard Mitomi call from within the cavern.

"Hey Naruto-san! Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah Mitomi-chan! Just a second!" he shouted before jogging in after her. Not a moment too soon, as right when he walked in, the pathway re-sealed itself behind him.

(5 Minutes Later- After Constructing A Temporary Campsite)

Their 'campsite' consisted of bringing futon mats near a cooking station, Naruto and Mitomi sat next to each other as the fire crackled. They each took turns rotating the stick that had the rabbit impaled on it, now skinned, over the fire.

"Alright. I believe it is ready." Mitomi said.

"Oh, joy." Naruto shot back, sarcastically.

"You know, I am going to break you out of that ramen diet of yours, Naruto-san."

"How can you eat this shit?" Naruto asked, ignoring his partner's question.

"How can you eat ramen every day?" she retorted as she was cutting the rabbit into portions.

"Ramen is the food of the Gods!" he shouted, standing up. "One day you will understand why ramen is the ultimate culinary cuisine, the finest in the art of food." he states, his chest puffing out in a proud-like manner.

Mitomi once again deadpanned at our blonde hero, this time accompanied with a sweatdrop. "Yes… I am definitely going to break you out of your ramen habit." She said, disappointment present in her voice.

As the day went on, and their stomachs were filled, it soon became apparent that night was approaching. Noticing this, Mitomi got up from her spot at the campfire and, turning to Naruto she spoke.

"Naruto-san, we have a long journey ahead of us, as such I feel it is best if we get rest now, so that we may gain more ground tomorrow."

"What?! But it's only 6:30!" Naruto whined.

"And?" she asked, rather unconvinced by his complaining.

"Isn't that a bit early?"

"A true ninja adapts to the situation, no matter what happens. Are you not a true ninja, Naruto-san?"

Even faster than her Sharingan eyes could process, Naruto bolted towards the pair of futons they found while exploring the base, and covered himself up in one of them, closing his eyes.

"Like I was saying, have a good night's sleep Mitomi-chan! Gotta get up early tomorrow, right? Right!" Naruto said before promptly falling asleep.

Mitomi sweatdropped at this before getting in her own futon and laying down, watching Naruto as he slept, while slowly drifting off to sleep herself. Before she could; however, she noticed that Naruto was shivering under his covers. She got back up out of her bed and walked over to Naruto, finding an extra blanket in the corner of the room. She grabbed it and shook it up to rid it of dust and debris before placing it over Naruto, who, shortly after, began to relax. This put a smile on Mitomi's face as she whispered, "Goodnight, Naruto-kun."

(Several Hours Later- Abandoned ROOT Base)

Naruto awakened to the sound of things being shifted around, courtesy of Mitomi, who was cleaning up their mess from eating the rabbit the previous night.

 _'Huh? Why do I have two blankets?'_ Naruto thought, noticing the extra weight. "Mitomi-chan, why do I have two blankets?" Naruto asked groggily, mirroring his thoughts.

"You fell asleep with two last night, remember, Naruto-san?" Mitomi asked, feigning innocence.

Being as sleepy as he was, Naruto didn't pick up on Mitomi's discomfort, so he didn't think much of it.

"So, what're you doing?" he asked, seeing Mitomi pile up her things in a heap at the middle of the room.

"Packing up our things." said Mitomi, but this time from behind him.

He turned around and his eyes widened at what he saw. There were _two_ Mitomi-chans!

"W-what the hell? How are there two of you?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu). I can create multiple copies of myself, but my limit is two as of now, because this jutsu requires a great deal of chakra to maintain."

"You gotta teach me that, Mitomi-chan!" begged Naruto.

"We shall see Naruto-san. For now, can you grab your stuff and bring them over here? We need to pack this stuff up."

"How do we pack all of this shit up?! We don't have any packs to put it in!"

"Have you ever heard of fuuinjutsu, Naruto-san?" As she said that, the stuff that was piled up next to her disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the only thing remaining being a small scroll on the floor. Naruto stood with his mouth agape at what had just happened.

"Mitomi-chan... Just how much cool shit can you do?"

"You have not seen anything yet, Naruto-san. I may decide to show you this later, though."

"Yes, please!" Naruto chirped happily.

"If you are a good boy, I will teach you Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) by tonight when we stop for a rest."

Naruto sat there with a dreamy expression on his face, imagining all of the ass he would kick if he had that jutsu at his disposal. He then made his way over to his futon and rolled it up, plopping it down at where all of Mitomi's stuff used to be. Mitomi then pulled a couple of kunai from her sleeve, to which Naruto cringed at from his experience with Mitomi and kunai back at the Academy. She then threw them on top of the futon on the floor and proceeded to seal the items away, handing the scroll to Naruto who put it in his jacket pocket.

"What's with the kunai?" he asked.

"Just in case you are in trouble and I am not there to help you. By the way, in order to unseal the items from the scroll, all you have to do is channel chakra into it."

Naruto gulped a bit at the insinuation, but regained his composure shortly after.

"Man, that stuff is really useful. I hope I can fusei- no... fuigi...-"

"Fuuinjutsu?"

"Yeah, that."

"We shall see Naruto-san, we shall see. Now that we are all packed up, shall we go? It's already 4:00 in the morning."

Naruto blanched at her statement. " _Already_ 4:00?! I haven't woken up this early in all my damn life!"

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, I know that this chapter is shorter than normal; however, I was pulling stuff out of my ass at that last part, and in order to save you all from the shit I would have written, I decided to end it there, because at this point, I need to stop and come up with more ideas. Hopefully by next chapter, I will have come up with some more sexy writings for you all to read and enjoy.**

 **Awesomesauce out.**


	5. Desert Problems

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine, un!_

 **Chapter 5: Desert Problems**

After packing their essentials, as well as doing one final sweep of the abandoned ROOT base, Naruto and Mitomi slipped on a pair of rucksacks with additional supplies. Mitomi pulled out a stack of weird-looking papers that had black markings scribbled all over the surface of them in an array of sorts. She began sticking them on to the walls and pillars around the base.

"What're those, Mitomi-chan?" Naruto asked, curiously. "Explosive tags." Mitomi said. "They are usually used for espionage and for defensive purposes, but you can use them offensively as well by doing things such as wrapping one around a kunai and throwing the weapon at an enemy."

"Cool!" Naruto exclaimed. "So why are you putting them around the base?"

"To hinder Danzo-sama in his endeavors. Even though this place has been abandoned, if they need to, ROOT could come back here to resume their operations. Danzo-sama has aspirations to take over as Hokage, but seeing as how he would not do something as brazen as kill Hiruzen Sarutobi himself, he wants to take over from the shadows. ROOT bases have been scattered all around the elemental nations, not just in Hi no Kuni and Konoha, for sabotage and espionage, or just scouting for enemy locations and items."

"You need to teach me how to make them!" Naruto was slightly drooling, imagining the destruction he could cause by using these tags. "They are standard shinobi equipment, so many, if not all, shinobi have a few on their person. I can teach you how to create your own, or we could go to a shop in a fishing village of some sort and purchase them for you to use." Naruto's eyes were sparkling as tears fell from his face comically. "You would really do that?! I can't wait!" Mitomi sweatdropped slightly at Naruto's excitement. _'I have never seen someone this excited about weaponry in the entirety of my short life.'_

(Konohagakure no Sato- Academy)

A bun-haired girl suddenly sneezed somewhat violently.

"Are you okay, Tenten? Are you sick?"

"No, I'm fine sensei."

(Forests of Hi no Kuni)

Naruto and Mitomi had exited the ROOT base, and were currently making their way through the forest before Mitomi stopped, putting her hand in a half ram seal once more.

It was then that Naruto felt the ground beneath him begin to shake as a loud explosion was heard. Rocks suddenly launched out and crumbled from the opening that they exited the base from.

' _Holy shit.'_

"We need to move, fast." stated Mitomi urgently. "Danzo-sama will find out about this sooner or later and send agents to investigate. By then, I hope we reach the next base if not be out of Hi no Kuni all together."

"Alright, where are we going?" asked Naruto. "I believe it would be wise to travel to Suna. Since they are close to Hi no Kuni, I do not think that Danzo-sama would expect us to take refuge there. Also, they are supposedly allied with Konoha, so if they find out that we are originally from there, they wouldn't outright attack us or throw us out of the village."

"Isn't Suna in the middle of a giant-ass desert?" Naruto prayed that wasn't the case, only to get a nod from Mitomi. "Fuck!" he whined. "We have to walk through all of it to get into Suna?" Another nod. Naruto paled. "Shit…"

"We must get going." They began hopping through the trees once more, when Mitomi matched her pace with Naruto's and pulled out some leftover explosive notes from before and handed them to him. "If you want to figure out how to create these for yourself, you need to study the sealing array drawn on them. If you try and draw them on without knowing exactly what you are doing, there is a very high probability that you could wind up severely injuring or killing yourself or those around you."

Naruto gulped. "Alright…" He tentatively took the notes from Mitomi's hand and looked at the array. It just looked like a bunch of squiggly lines to him, but thanks to the revelation that Mitomi had made to him about what these things could do, he saw them in a different light. _'I could kill people with these… Even my friends… or myself.'_ He gulped once more before steeling his resolve and staring intently at the parchments.

After an hour of traveling, Naruto cried out in a comical fashion and clutched his head with one hand while holding the papers in the other. "I can't take this shit anymore! I can't keep looking at this damn thing! I want to start practicing on my own!" Naruto cried out, "No." Mitomi said sternly. "You are going to continue studying the seal. I do not care how long you do it. I will only allow you to begin creating your own once I am absolutely sure that you are ready. Until then, you will continue staring at it, no complaining."

Naruto stared at her incredulously. "Damn, Mitomi-chan, you can be pretty scary when you try." he mumbled. "What do you mean, Naruto-san? How did I evoke the thought of me being frightening? I simply told you to continue training." Naruto blanched. _'You've gotta be shitting me… She doesn't even know?! She's almost as bad as Sakura-chan!'_

"Alright, fine…" he grumbled out. He resumed his task of looking over the seal as they were tree-hopping. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mitomi with a small smile on her face _'This bitch! She_ does _know what she's doing!'_

(Kaze no Kuni- Sunagakure no Sato)

We happen upon a girl walking through the village of Sunagakure no Sato. She had a light caramel skin-tone, amber eyes, and looked to be about nine years of age. Her hair was blood-red and had darkened to a midnight black color at the ends of said hair, which framed her face. It was pulled into two long, twin pigtails at the back of her head, with both ends once again turning into a dark black color at the tips.

She was garbed in the standard wraps Suna civilians wore, beige in color. On her feet she wore navy blue shinobi sandals, meanwhile on her hands she wore fingerless gloves of a similar color. The only thing that set her apart was the large, coffin-like box strapped to her back.

The girl was walking in a somewhat hurried fashion, her head turning side to side, as if she were searching for something or someone. She made her way downtown, turning down alleyways and sidewalks before finally arriving to her destination:

The playground.

She was once again looking around, this time more focused than she was before. The short girl was rewarded for her efforts when she caught sight of her target: a young boy with red hair and dark circles around his pupiless sea green eyes. The boy appeared to be sitting on a swing set by himself, feet kicking idly. He wore a sad frown on his pale face. On his back he had a gourd and on his forehead he had the kanji for 'love' imprinted in a deep red color just above his left eye.

He was dragged out of his melancholic state when suddenly he felt his sand shield converge around him and heard a soft 'thunk'. After his sand shield receded, he looked at who would be brave enough to approach him, and was surprised to see his only friend, Akane, one arm resting on her coffin-like box, grinning down at Gaara.

"Oh, um... Hi, Akane-san... How are you today?" he asked timidly. Although it had been quite a while since they had established their relationship as friends, he was somewhat wary of her. People had approached him and acted like his friends only to deceive him and hurt him in some way in the end. That feeling was amplified tenfold after his one and only confidant, Yashamaru, betrayed him, and although he followed the Kazekage's orders, he wanted to assassinate Gaara of his own free will as well.

Ever since that day, Gaara had been hearing voices inside of his head in addition to not being able to sleep. This was slowly affecting his personality that was already nothing much to begin with, being the jinchuuriki of Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki.

"*sigh* You really should do something other than sit around by yourself all mopey, Tanuki-kun."

"My name is Gaara, Akane-san. When will you begin to start calling me by my name? And besides, I have no one to do anything with. They all avoid me. I'm a monster."

"Whenever I feel like it, Tanuki-kun. And you have me, silly! Why don't we go do something together?"

Gaara stared at her with wide eyes. "Why are you doing this? Why do you not avoid me like the others?" His eyes narrowed. "Why are you so nice to me?" he asked, suspicion evident in his voice.

"Because I'm not like the others. I never had parents to tell me to stay away from you, and anyone else that told me to stay away can just go fuck themselves. It's not fair that you have to suffer like this." she seethed, her fists clenching.

She didn't say it, but she also felt that Gaara needed someone in his life after Yashamaru's betrayal and subsequent death.

"So" she began, sobering from her anger, "Why don't we go do something? Class was cancelled at the Puppet Corps today, Chiyo-baachan wasn't there, and Kankuro-baka won't stop bugging me to spar with him with those dolls that he calls puppets. I need to hang out with other people." she mumbled comically.

Because it was known that she had made friends with Gaara all throughout the village, she had been somewhat ostracized by the other villagers, saying that she must also be some 'demon', so not many of the other kids approached her out of fear, but less so than her fellow redhead.

She didn't give a shit, though. Everyone else that had insulted her and Gaara could go die for all she cared. Temari-neechan, Kankuro-baka, and Tanuki-kun were the only friends she needed. All of the other kids were too weak for her taste. They had the gall to call themselves shinobi and kunoichi when she kicked everyone's asses at the Academy, which is why she left in order to join the Puppet Corps when she saw how badass all of the puppeteers were.

She got her ass handed to her more often than not, but that only drove her to improve. As of now, she is about mid-chuunin level in terms of her puppetry and ninjutsu skills. Even the villagers had to begrudgingly admit that she was something of a prodigy when she kicked all of their kids' asses.

Seeing Akane calm down, Gaara gave a small smile and chirped "Sure! Let's do... friendly things."

 _'*sigh* I really need to break him out of his shell. Damn all of those fucking villagers. He's too nice for you to hate him...'_ She grabbed his hand and lead her friend through the back alleys of the village in order to avoid the inevitable glares and shit-talking that they would usually receive. She could handle it, but Gaara, in addition to being socially stunted, was very self-conscious because of his 'tenant' inside of him, and she didn't like seeing him all depressed.

As they walked through the streets where the population began thinning out, they passed by a man who was leaving a bar, reeking of sake and several other alcoholic beverages. He wore a baggy blue shirt tied with a lighter-blue obi with brown pants and matching geta sandals.

In his drunken stupor, he failed to notice the two children passing by until they were right next to him. He wobbled on his feet and looked at them with half-lidded eyes, before bumping into them due to his inebriated mobility and shouted. "Oi, you lil shits..." he slurred. "Watch where the fuck you goin'..." Akane scowled. _'Damn it...'_ The man saw this and again tried to speak coherently. "You got a problem with me, missy? The fuck you lookin' at?" She looked over at her jinchuuriki companion to see his face down, his red bangs shadowing his ringed eyes. "Don't talk to Akane-san like that." he murmured.

"Oi gaki, the fuck you just say? You tellin' me to shut up? I, Takeshi-sama, take orders from no one!" The man now revealed to be Takeshi exclaimed. Once he calmed down, he looked at the duo with a scrutinizing eye before they widened in realization. "Oi oi oi, what do we have here? The little demon gaki and his bitch? What're you doin' here? Get the fuck away! You're not welcome here..." He stopped himself when he saw Gaara look at him, a look of pure anger washing over his facial features. _'Why me...? Why is it always me?!'_

Sand unconsciously began swirling around Gaara's feet as Takeshi backed away in fear.

 _'The fucker's gone and done it now... Good riddance.'_

Sand surrounded Gaara in a shield of sorts, only his face was visible in his little sand cocoon. The sand began to stretch out on his shield until it looked like spikes had grown out of it.

Takeshi hit the floor as he tripped over some of the stray sand whipping around, backing up against the wall "Wa... wait! Don't do this!"

 _'Too late.'_

His sea green eyes radiated pure bloodlust. Swathes of killing intent rolled off of him in waves. Finally, with a movement of his hand, the spikes in his sand shield loosened and fired at the poor man.

"Suna Shigure (Sand Drizzle)."

Several sick squelching sounds were heard. Once Gaara calmed down, he looked up at the aftermath of his technique, only to look mortified at the sight. The only thing remaining of Takeshi, or what they _thought_ was Takeshi, at least, was a large, chunky blood stain all over the walls and floor.

He looked down at his hands, his eyes wide and his body shaking. All of a sudden, he collapsed on the floor, clutching his head and screaming.

Once she somewhat calmed him down, Akane picked him up to where they both were on their knees, her arms wrapped around Gaara protectively.

"Shhh, shhh Tanuki-kun, it's okay. You're okay. Calm down." she soothed, rubbing the back of his head. After a little bit, she heard choked sobbing.

"It's not fair Akane-san... It's just not fair!"

"I know, Gaara-kun, I know."

She pulled away from the embrace, hands still on his shoulders, and calmly said "Listen. I know what you must be feeling right now, but we need to take you home before anyone gets here. I don't want you to get in trouble again."

She spat out the word 'trouble' as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. Whenever Suna ANBU said that Gaara was in trouble, they would haul him off and basically mentally torture him to 'get the demon under control.'

Gaara slowly nodded and the duo began walking away to the Kazekage's mansion, hand in hand. Once they were off into the distance, a figure shunshin'd to the bar they were in front of minutes prior. The figure looked at the destruction before sighing. He wore the standard Suna jounin garb, with a drape-like hat that covered half of his tanned face. The half that was shown had two red marks on his cheeks.

 _'Oh Gaara...'_

(Hi no Kuni/Kaze no Kuni Border- Abandoned ROOT Base)

Not being a stamina/chakra battery like Naruto, Mitomi grew tired once they entered the new base, which had a similar entrance to the previous one, but this time at the base of a large tree trunk. The tree trunk then lead to an underground cave, instead of a large room carved out, located at the base of a mountain. You could see the sandy desert not even one mile away from their current position.

"Naruto-san, I am afraid that I cannot stay awake any longer. Will you be capable of keeping watch on your own?" Mitomi asked, her question laced with concern. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm still wide awake!" he said with a cheeky grin. "Very well then. Goodnight, Naruto-san." With that, she unsealed her futon, pillow, and blanket and promptly laid down. In a matter of seconds, her breathing slowed to a relaxed pace, and he could see her chest rising and falling slowly, signifying that she had fallen asleep.

His ringed, purple eyes roamed around the room until he fixated on her face as she slept. _'She looks cute while she's sleeping.'_ he mused to himself, before a slight red tinge found its way on to his tanned cheeks. _'Wait... What the fuck am I thinking?! Mitomi-chan is my friend!'_

To preoccupy himself from dwelling on his embarrassing thoughts, he pulled out the explosive notes that Mitomi had given him hours before, and once again began studying the sealing formula scribbled on the front of the notes.

" _If you want to figure out how to create these for yourself, you need to study the sealing array drawn on them. If you try and draw them on without knowing exactly what you are doing, there is a very high probability that you could wind up severely injuring or killing yourself, or those around you."_

Naruto kept replaying her warning in his mind, knowing that he needed to keep studying the seal before he began creating his own. He noticed that some of the notes in the stack were blank. _'I know I shouldn't, but...'_ He retreated to a corner of the room far away from his comatose companion.

After staring at one of the blank notes for what seemed like hours, he wiped his nervously sweaty brow before hardening his gaze, periodically glancing over at Mitomi's sleeping form to make sure that she was still sleeping.

He looked around the room before he found what looked like a piece of charcoal . He began scraping it across the floor in order to sharpen it and shape it to where it fit comfortably in his hand. After that, he began copying the seal off of one of the other tags, making sure to copy it exactly as it was written. When he was done, he put his hand up to his chin, wondering how to activate his now finished tag. _'Didn't she put one of her hands up in a seal?'_ He put his hand up in a half-ram seal like he saw Mitomi do, bracing himself for an explosion when...

Nothing happened. He opened his eyes and stared at the note. _'Is it a dud? Did I not copy it right?'_ He put his hand in the half-ram seal once more, but this time trying to incorporate his chakra, which wasn't easy, considering the fact that he was the absolute _worst_ at chakra control.

He felt a strange tug in his gut before he heard a sizzling noise in front of him. He looked down at the tag on the floor and saw it slowly decreasing in size, being burnt to the end by a small flame. _'Yatta!'_ His celebration was short lived when he noticed that he was standing fairly close to his tag, now almost depleted. _'Oh shit!'_ He hit the deck, diving far away from the note.

Just in time. As soon as he made contact with the floor, the cavern shook following a loud explosion, to which Mitomi shot up from her slumber, immediately pulling out a kunai and searching for Naruto to make sure he was alright.

To her unpleasant surprise, she found Naruto on the ground, coughing up soot, which he was also covered in. She sweatdropped at the display of him flailing about, only to don her more serious, stoic expression. When Naruto saw Mitomi looking at him as if asking for an explanation, he stuttered out " Um... I... I may or may not have... kinda... copiedoneofyourtagsandmadeitexplode."

"...What was that, Naruto-san?"

A sense of extreme foreboding suddenly overwhelmed Naruto's senses and screamed at him to back away, but he pushed these feelings to the back of his mind and spoke up. "I... copied one of your tags and made my own...?"

A tick mark formed over Mitomi's forehead. She slowly sauntered over to Naruto and began flexing her hand. "Um... What are you going to do?" he asked as he laughed nervously.

"Punishment for disobedience." she drawled out, Sharingan flaring.

The wails heard that night rang out all across the Elemental Nations.

(Konohagakure no Sato- Hokage's Office)

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, filling out paperwork, letting his mind wander to the whereabouts of his surrogate grandson. _'I wonder how Naruto-kun is doing with his Uchiha friend?'_

All of a sudden, Hiruzen clutched his ears in pain, doubling over in his chair. _'What the hell was that?'_ he asked himself, his ears still ringing.

(Sunagakure no Sato- Kazekage's Mansion)

Sabaku no Gaara sat in his room alone, as usual, staring at pictures of his mother and uncle, when his ears felt a feeling that he had only experienced in his heart until this point: pain. He held his ears as what sounded like a person's scream echoed throughout Sunagakure. _'Is this what it feels like to hurt for real?'_

(Hi no Kuni/ Kaze no Kuni Border- Abandoned ROOT Base)

Naruto lay down in his futon, many welts emerging from his spiky blonde hair. He looked warily at his female friend, who had her back turned to him, sleeping in her own futon. He couldn't see it, but Mitomi had a peaceful smile on her face as she listened to Naruto's whimpering noises.

(The Next Day)

They once again got up at the ungodly hour of four o'clock in the morning, repeating the process of sealing their belongings, combing around the base for any straggling worthwhile supplies, and setting up explosive tags around said base, before hastily making their exit. Once they were far enough away from the tree where the ROOT base resided within, Mitomi proceeded to put her hand in the half-ram seal. Seconds later, an explosion rang out accompanied by the ground shaking somewhat violently. With one final look at what used to be the ROOT hideout, Naruto followed Mitomi into the desert of Kaze no Kuni.

After about an hour, the two children found themselves still traversing through the harsh terrain of Kaze no Kuni, but now they were wearing ragged hooded cloaks to protect themselves from the unforgiving sandstorm that had brewed in that short time.

"I hate the fucking desert..." Naruto mumbled.

Mitomi deadpanned at her partner's discomfort. While she herself wasn't a fan of Kaze no Kuni, she didn't spend every five minutes complaining about the heat, sandstorms, sand in her shoes, or the sweat drenching their clothes.

(A Few Hours Later- At Night)

"I believe it would be wise to rest for the time being."

"How the fuck're we gonna rest in the middle of a freezing desert?" Naruto asked, crawling on all fours in a comical fashion.

"We make a makeshift tent and build a campfire."

"Where do we get the wood?"

Mitomi pulled out another sealing scroll which disappeared in a puff of smoke, and in its place in her hand were now many sticks.

"I gathered these as we moved through the trees. I had a feeling that we would need them in the future." Naruto perked up slightly at that. At least he wouldn't freeze to death in the desert.

(Minutes Later)

Once they finished the construction of their blanket-tent, they threw the sticks that Mitomi had gathered into a small pile, to which she set ablaze with a mini Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu).

She also unsealed from another scroll the remains of the game that they had hunted earlier that day: two scorpions and a large lizard.

They each cut off the stingers of their respective scorpion with a kunai, carefully looking over it to make sure there wasn't any more places that there could possibly any venom to accidentally ingest, and then skinned the large lizard and cut it in half, the tail end going to Naruto and the head going to Mitomi. They then impaled the animals on some leftover sticks and let them roast over the fire for a few minutes.

With a quick chant of "Itadakimasu!" they both began chowing down on their dinner.

Once they finished eating, she put out the fire by pouring sand on top of it, and crawled under the tent, covering herself with a blanket.

Naruto looked around and asked "Where do I sleep?" Mitomi had the only blanket left, the other being used for the tent.

"In here, Naruto-san." she said, a perplexed expression on her face when she saw Naruto blush lightly. Why did he seem so flustered?

"O...okay." Naruto stammered, crawling into the space Mitomi had made for him beside her.

Once they both were settled down, she said "Goodnight, Naruto-san."

"Night, Mitomi-chan." With that, he rolled over so that his back was to her so she couldn't see his face turn beet red. Being a jinchuuriki, especially for the Kyuubi, Naruto never had any experience with close contact unless it was with his fists. He didn't have any parents, so he never got touched in a nonviolent manner except for when Mikoto hugged him from time to time after visiting him, when him and Sasuke were sparring, or when Old Man Sandaime ruffled his hair fondly.

 _'Sasuke-teme... Mikoto-oba... Jiji... Fuck.'_

His Rinnegan eyes brimmed with tears before eventually falling asleep.

(The Following Morning)

Naruto was stirred from the blissful realm of unconsciousness when he felt something soft pressing against his back. He liked the feeling, so he relaxed into it. After a few more minutes of trying to drift off to sleep once more, to no avail, he slowly opened his eyes and shifted his head to look at what was pressed against him, now feeling something wrapped around his right leg.

His eyes widened when he was faced with a sleeping Mitomi holding on to his arm, her legs wrapped around his own, her chest pressed against his upper back.

He slowly removed himself from Mitomi, which proved to be difficult, as she had an iron grip. Once he managed to wriggle his way out of the prison of her embrace, he heard her whine at the loss of warmth.

Naruto looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was about directly above them, so he guessed that it was about twelve or one o'clock in the morning, since not even Motomi was up yet.

Naruto relaxed back into the tent once more, closing his eyes, waiting for sleep to overtake him again.


	6. Training

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine, so it'll all be fine! Fool, ya fool!_

 **Chapter 6: Training  
**

As dawn encroached upon the horizon, our heros resumed their trek towards the desert paradise, Sunagakure no Sato. Within a matter of minutes, Naruto began walking sluggishly with his head hung. "Son of… a bitch… This is… fucking… stupid." he murmured. _'I hate this damn desert.'_

"Alright, Naruto-san. I believe that we need to stop and rest, in addition to my blood pressure steadily increasing from your complaining. This should be a good place to begin your training."

It took a moment for Naruto to process this, before his eyes lit up and he whipped his head to the side to look at his female friend with excitement. "T-Training?! Fuck yeah, training! What am I gonna learn first? Maybe an awesome Katon jutsu… or a destructive Doton jutsu…" He said while he began drooling from all of the possibilities.

"No." Mitomi stated flatly, to which Naruto instantly became downcast. "But…" Naruto perked up again, looking at Mitomi intently. "I will teach you Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)."

"Sweet! That's not as cool as a giant-ass fireball… but I'll take it!" Naruto said.

"Now, normally, I would teach you chakra control first, but since you are essentially a chakra battery with the Kyuubi and Uzumaki blood, and this technique will not injure you if you use too much chakra, we can jump right in."

With the respect that one might find from a subordinate to their captain and a firm nod, Naruto resolutely stated "Yes, sensei. What do I do first?"

"Now, what you want to do first is mould your chakra. You know that you are doing it right when you feel somewhat of a tug in your stomach. Concentrate, and try to feel the energy flowing within your body. Once you get a firm grasp on your chakra, make this hand seal." She put her hands up in a cross shape. "After that, release the feeling in your gut and the technique will be cast. My limit is from two to three clones, but for you I would hazard a guess of about one hundred."

Naruto nodded once again and closed his eyes. He felt a small burning sensation in his gut when he began feeling for his chakra. He shifted his feet on the ground to a firm stance before putting his hands in the identical pattern that he saw Mitomi use. He pushed out the feeling in his stomach before hearing multiple loud 'poofing' sounds around him. He opened his eyes slowly before they widened in surprise at what they saw. Surrounding him in a giant circle were over two thousand clones, all looking bored and picking their noses or talking to each other. He began looking around him before he realized _something_ was a bit askew.

"What the fuck?! I see… everything…?"

Across from him, also surrounded by the army of Narutos, Mitomi's eyes widened marginally. She seemed calm on the outside, but inside, she was a combination of internally screaming and flabbergasted at the sheer amount of clones that he had produced.

It took her a moment to realize that he had said something. "What do you mean 'everything'?"

In Naruto's perspective with the Rinnegan, he began looking at his clones from his point of view, but also saw what his clones saw. It was as somewhat similar to the Hyuuga's Byakugan, where he could see 360 degrees around him, and then some. Whatever his clones saw, _he_ saw as well, but his vision was split up like an insect's eyes to where they could see multiple of the same image, but for Naruto, each image was different. "I can see what my clones see... Weird, but cool!"

All of the visual feedback began taking it's toll on Naruto. His head began hurting more and more to the point where he collapsed onto the floor, an action which all of his clones followed suit. Two thousand Narutos were rolling around on the floor before Mitomi quickly shouted "Disable the jutsu!" "How!" he yelled back in agony. "Cut off your chakra flow by focusing on your chakra network and halting it for a moment! That should cut off the clones' chakra supply!"

Naruto closed his eyes once again and visualized cutting a string before feeling somewhat queasy. He heard more 'poofing' noises before opening his eyes and seeing nothing but smoke. Once it cleared, he saw memories that he recalled seeing in his insect-like vision flashing through his mind like fast-forwarding a movie.

" **FUCK!"**

The extra memory intake didn't help Naruto's migraine at all, and soon he passed out on the floor, his face pale and void of emotion.

Mitomi, seeing her friend fall, immediately ran towards him. When she reached him, she quickly turned him over so that he was lying on his back. She then picked up his arm and applied two fingers to his wrist, checking for a pulse. When she felt the tell-tale 'thumps' of his heartbeat, she gave out a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing.

It was then she began to understand what exactly made Naruto faint. Kage Bunshin were useful not only as solid clones for combat, but also as information gatherers, as their memories transferred to the original upon being dispelled. Now, normally this feedback wasn't a problem for most shinobi as they were only able to summon a couple at a time, and those were jounin.

Naruto had summoned a metric fuckton.

Because of this, the feedback from the memories gained by those clones were too much for the young child to comprehend. Thus his brain did the only thing it was able to, namely shut off, at least for a little while.

Then, there was the issue with his eyes. Apparently with the Rinnegan, it was possible to see from the perspective of his clones. All of the visual content in his eyesight was too much to transform into information to feed to Naruto through the neurons in his brain, causing the initial headache.

Mitomi sighed as she stared at the now sleeping blond. She then decided this might be as good a spot as any to set up camp.

(Meanwhile- Sunagakure no Sato)

All was peaceful in the hidden village. Merchants were advertising their wares to any passerby, children were chasing each other and giggling happily, and the locals were chatting amongst themselves cheerily.

One, however, was not having a good day.

As the populace milled about the streets of the village, they were rather unprepared for what they were about to endure.

Everyone's attention was suddenly brought to a dust cloud that looked as though it were coming closer. As it drew nearer, it became clear that the surprisingly large dust cloud was trailing behind what looked to be a small nine year old girl with red hair and dark skin. The girl was screaming as she kicked up a storm, fear evident in her eyes as she barreled through the streets, trampling over all who happened to be in her way.

The chaos that was left in her wake was hard to look at, the merchant who had been selling food was suddenly missing stock, the people who were talking were now seriously disheveled and one of the children playing was missing.

Akane was no longer screaming, the reason was because her mouth was filled with food from the stall she passed. Chewing and swallowing it in an impressive matter of seconds, she glanced downward to see that she was carrying a bewildered four year old.

They both stared at each other before Akane suddenly stopped and dropped the child, she was only nine years old and not ready to be labeled a kidnapper. She sped up, running so fast people who were unfortunate enough to cross her path at the moment were certain they saw flames starting where she ran.

Any who saw Akane running at this speed this early in the morning would ask the obvious question: ' _Why?'_ The answer was both as simple as the question and also more complicated.

You see, Akane was a great student, to the point of frustration to most people. Unlike many of her fellow students, she took both pride and pleasure in working, going as far as to _beg_ the instructor, Lady Chiyo, for more work to do, no matter it's difficulty. She spent so much time at the local library that there were some rumors that she actually lived there, no one really believed them, but whenever they saw her enter the library with what appeared to be a pillow they would always be left wondering.

The reason for her peculiar attitude was that Akane was brought to this village at the young age of seven without any memory of how she'd gotten there or who she was. The only real thing she remembered was her name and how to speak. She absolutely loathed most of the villagers for how they treated Gaara, but they still took her in when she needed it and she felt like she owed them in some way. So what better way to give back besides making herself useful? Thus she enjoyed when given work and learned to live off the thrill of the challenge.

In fact, it was because of her love for working hard and being a great student that put her in this situation. Akane was very strict with herself whenever it came to anything academic; she worked herself to the bone and enjoyed doing so, any mistake made in the process was intolerable, and Akane would severely punish herself for this, usually with more work.

(Somewhere in Konohagakure no Sato)

A pair of green jumpsuit wearing individuals with identical haircuts and bushy eyebrows sneezed in tandem with each other.

"Gai-sensei! We sneezed at the same time, what does this mean?!" The younger one asked, stars in his eyes.

The older one had his arms crossed before his right one extended to a thumbs-up, a wide smile broke out across his face, teeth shining brighter than the sun.

"It means that your flames of youth are approaching someone of my stature! We are becoming one in terms of youth!" The older one replied enthusiastically.

The younger one had tears comically streaming down his cheeks as he shouted "Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

 **"LEE!"**

After several more minutes of passionately yelling each other's names, they both began running towards each other as the sun set behind them and waves crashed along the shores of a beach.

Even the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha, Yuhi Kurenai, had to admit that this was one powerful genjutsu. Anyone caught within the range of this technique stood paralyzed in fear, unable to tear their eyes away from the sight.

The Sandaime Hokage even brought this jutsu to light at a council meeting, saying that this may be another Kekkei Touta in addition to the Jinton (Dust Release) of the Tsuchikage.

(Back in Sunagakure- With Akane)

Akane was in her predicament for one reason:

She was running late.

Then again, 'late' by Akane's standards usually meant she hadn't gotten up early and was now coming to class exactly on time.

Go figure.

She suddenly skidded to a stop,and because she was going so fast her feet began to dig into the earth until she was submerged up to her knees in the ground. Quickly pulling herself out as if it hadn't happened, she bolted to the entrance of her destination.

The Puppet Corps Headquarters.

She walked into class and took a seat at her desk. She glanced at the clock and noticed that there were two more minutes until the bell rang.

With a small fist pump to congratulate herself, she raised her hand, to which the teacher at the front of the room tiredly called on her.

"What is it, Akane-chan?"

"Can I have some work to do until the bell rings?"

"But... there's only one minute until the bell rings..."

"I can handle it, sensei. You know I complete work fast!"

With a defeated sigh, the instructor rummaged through his desk until he found a puppet anatomy worksheet from a different class and handed it to her.

She gladly took the sheet of paper and grabbed a pencil, ready to start. The instructor glanced up from the book he was reading to look at Akane while she worked. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when he saw how fast she was writing. Her hand was barely a blur. Just a few seconds before the bell rang, Akane handed her paper in to her teacher, who didn't even bother checking over the paper to know if she got a perfect score, because she always did.

"You know, today is the final." he said. "Since you took it early last week, you don't have to take it again today." Already expecting her answer, he wasn't surprised when she told him that she wanted to take it again.

"Alright, just go and take your seat, the other kids are coming. We also have a surprise for everyone."

Wondering what it was, but not asking as to not ruin the surprise, she went back to her seat as her classmates filed through the door.

"Alright, class. Sit down and shut up. We're gonna start this right away. Today is your final!"

After a brief pause to allow the students to let out a groan of anguish, he continued. "Today, we have a special guest here with us!"

All of the students turned towards each other and asked one another in hushed voices who it was, genuinely curious.

Once he passed out the papers and pencils needed for everyone to take their test, he opened the classroom door and motioned to the person outside to come in, followed by a bow of courtesy.

Everyone's jaws hit the floor when they saw the guest of honor.

Lady Chiyo.

It got so quiet that you could hear a pin drop and it would be deafening, before Lady Chiyo broke the silence herself, scanning the room and observing the children with a keen eye, lingering on Akane a bit longer than the other students. "Well? Are you youngsters gonna start the test or what? I can't get any younger, you know?"

Nodding vigorously, all of the students began their test with gusto, determined to impress their idol.

She sat still at the front of the room, steeling her gaze on the children taking their test. She kept glancing over to Akane, watching how she sped through the test like nothing.

 _'Either she's really smart, or I was lied to about her capabilities.'_

After only four minutes, Akane stood up and headed to the front of the room and turned in her final, to which the instructor took, rolling his eyes. As she walked back to her seat, she noticed that most of the other students glared at her when she passed them, while the others gave a forced smile.

Lady Chiyo motioned for the instructor to hand her Akane's test, to which he complied and Akane watched on with bated breath.

 _'She's looking at my test! Yes!'_

She didn't see it, but Lady Chiyo's eyes widened a little bit.

 _'She... She got every question right?!'_

She looked up from the paper and scrutinized Akane, looking at her surroundings to make sure that she didn't cheat in some way. When she didn't find anything, that only baffled her even more.

She resumed her stoic expression and sat down in her chair once again, scanning the room and watching the other students, who promptly stopped glaring at Akane, not wanting to be reprimanded by Lady Chiyo.

(One Hour Later)

Once the last student turned their papers in, Lady Chiyo stood up and walked around the classroom, weaving in between the desks while speaking. "I don't feel like bullshitting you here…" To that, many of the students gasped. "Oh, grow up. Anyway, I don't feel like bullshitting you, so I'm just going to tell you what I think."

Many students held their breath, eager to hear what she had to say about everyone's test scores.

"... You all suck."

To that, everyone became crestfallen. They were hoping that the _founder_ of the Puppet Corps would appreciate their skills.

"But…"

Everyone looked up, hopeful that there would be some silver lining to this shit day, that somehow, Lady Chiyo would cut them a break and maybe _train_ them.

"There is one student that rose above all the others. That deserves the training that I would give them. That would push themselves to the brink of death and take it in stride. That one student is…"

"Akane."

(With Naruto and Mitomi- Deserts of Kaze no Kuni)

We come back to the desert wasteland to find the Uzumaki-Uchiha duo sheltering themselves from a mild sandstorm that brewed while the blond of the team was knocked out.

Naruto sat up groggily, holding his head. "Ow… Shit that hurt…"

"So you are finally awake, Naruto-san? How do you feel?"

"Like shit." he stated bluntly. "Better than before, but it still hurts like hell."

"Do you think that you will be able to move shortly? I believe that the storm is finally letting up."

"Yeah, I'll manage, Mitomi-chan. How much longer until we get to Suna?"

"I would guess about a few more hours."

"Fuck." he growled out.

"Now, now, don't be like that Naruto-san. There's more training to do." she said teasingly.

"Really?!" Naruto exclaimed, before putting on a sour expression. "This won't involve more headaches, right?"

"No, at least I do not believe so. What I wish to do is instead of physical training, I want to do mental training, where I help you with some things, and in return you answer some of my questions.

"Okay." he said simply.

Usually, Naruto would groan in disappointment and just not pay attention because of his loathe for lectures, oral presentations and the like, but this wasn't in the Academy with Iruka-sensei, this was in the middle of Kaze no Kuni's desert with his only friend and companion. What she tells him could quite literally save his life in the not-so-distant future. Thus, we find out hero sitting cross-legged on the floor, paying rapt attention to Mitomi.

"To start, I would like each of us to get a better understanding of the Rinnegan. As I have said before, they are the legendary doujutsu that belonged to the Rikudou Sennin, who was essentially a god among men as he was the first mortal to be born with chakra. This was due to his mother, Otsutsuki Kaguya, who had stolen a sacred fruit from the original chakra source, the Shinju (Divine Tree) and ate it. This caused her to become the first person to gain a chakra network. Once the Rikudou Sennin grew up into a young man, he began teaching other people the art of ninjutsu, known as Ninshu at the time.

The legends become very vague and nondescript after this, not much is known about the Sage of Six Paths, or why his mother ate the sacred fruit. Some have speculated it was for personal gain while others have suggested that she did so under stressful conditions. Because we do not know that much about him, our knowledge on his dojutsu is similarly limited. What we do know is that the Senju, Uchiha, and Hyuuga clans were all descended from him, which implies the idea that this is why they are so well-renowned, along with their prowess as a clan." Mitomi finished, setting her gaze on a now sleeping Naruto.

A tick mark forming on her forehead, Mitomi sighed before raising a fist.

Naruto was having an amazing dream, it was his favorite one where a ramen overlord came to his apartment before offering to make him the Kage of the Village Hidden in Ramen. This was where he would be able to have any topping of all the ramen noodles he wanted, for free!

This is why it came as a huge shock when he was suddenly brought back to reality as pain exploded in the back of his head. Bringing his hands up to his head to hold it, Naruto glared at Mitomi with tears streaming down his face comically.

"Mitomi-chan! Why'd you do that? I was having the best dream ever, dattebayo!" Naruto whined, however Mitomi was having none of it as she stood before him with arms crossed, she glared at him in the same way a mother would before scolding their child.

"You cannot expect to be a great ninja with an attention span like that Naruto." she chided

Naruto's only response to Mitomi's advice was to groan in despair; he had heard that line one too many times from his sensei for spacing out in class. He returned to his former position on the ground, once again paying attention to Mitomi.

Mitomi sighed to herself at her companions antics. Then she launched into her carefully made statement on what they knew about the Rikudou Sennin, this time asking Naruto questions to make sure he was still listening. When they finished, things became quiet for awhile, neither person knowing what to say.

It was during this silence Mitomi found herself studying the rings decorating her friends eyes. As she stared at them, the gravity of the situation finally dawned on her, an extremely rare and powerful dojutsu was right there in front of her and all she was doing was staring back at it.

Not one to miss an opportunity to gain valuable information, Mitomi spoke up. "Anyway, now that I hope you have gained a better understanding of the power that you wield, I need to ask some questions in order understand what it is like to be the one with the legendary doujutsu."

"To start off, what do you see when you create your clones? When you spawned those two thousand Kage Bunshin earlier, you told me that you saw 'everything.' What did that mean?" she questioned

"Basically, when I created my clones, my vision split up and it looked like I was looking through the eyes of a fly, where it was split up into hundreds of sections, but instead of having hundreds of the same image, I had hundreds of all different images. I saw what all of my clones saw. Next thing I knew, my head hurt like a bitch and I blacked out." Naruto replied, cradling his head at the memory.

' _Just as I thought.'_ Mitomi noted, her suspicions confirmed. "What happened was that the sensory part of your brain was overloaded. With all of that visual information, your brain could not keep up with the influx of images and coped with it by shutting itself off. I believe the headache part was caused by the same reason, minus your brain shutting down." she explained.

"Next, back within Konoha, what did you feel when you used those techniques on the ROOT nin after me? And how did you know them?"

After a moment of thought, trying to remember what had happened, Naruto replied "It's kind of fuzzy, but I… I felt… nothing. I didn't feel anything when I killed them…" His face fell. "As for the jutsus I used, I don't even remember what I said, but words that I had never heard of in my life appeared in my head and my hands moved instinctively. It felt as if I was only watching my body through my eyes. I couldn't control them and I couldn't comprehend what was happening…" he stopped speaking, so Mitomi took the chance to tell him what he had done.

"You said something like 'Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)' followed by 'Banshō Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All of Creation).' It looked as if you controlled gravity itself.

When he heard Mitomi speak of the techniques, a bell went off in his head. "Oh shit! I remember that!" he exclaimed. "How did I do it though?" he asked more to himself than to his partner. "I need to try and train some more."

"That sounds like a good idea, Naruto-san, but the storm has stopped and I believe it would be wise to cover as much ground as possible before nightfall."

Naruto got up from his position on the floor and swatted at his clothes to rid them of sand before turning to Mitomi and saying "Yeah, I guess so. Let's get going, dattebayo!"


	7. Red

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto's springtime of youth! Yosh!_

 **Chapter 7: Red**

Naruto and Mitomi were trudging through the sandy desert of Kaze no Kuni once again. The hot sun was beating down on the duo as they made their way to Sunagakure. Mitomi looked up into the sky with her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sand churning around the pair of children. Naruto was once again complaining about the "stupid fucking desert" when he heard Mitomi release a small gasp.

He looked up from his pouting position to see what was going on when he nearly choked on his own breath.

Once they cleared a large dune and were standing on top of it, right there in front of them, was the gorgeous Paradise of the Desert Wasteland, Sunagakure no Sato. The outer walls of the village stood tall and proud over the rest of the desert surrounding it.

Naruto stood there, mesmerized by the massive expanse of civilization, before Mitomi spoke up. "Naruto-san, as much as I want to observe the outside of the village, wouldn't it be better to get _in_ side?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while grinning and said "Oh… yeah... hehehe."

He then began walking towards the imposing gates of Sunagakure before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Mitomi shaking her head. "Naruto-san, we cannot just walk up to the gates. We are not from this village and we have no form of identification to get in. Legally."

Naruto swore he thought he saw a glint in her eyes as she said that. "So… what do we do then?"

"It just so happens that I was tasked with a reconnaissance mission by Danzo-sama three years ago. There is a similar tunnel into the village here to what you saw at the last ROOT base."

Naruto gawked at his female partner before asking "You… you came to Suna _by yourself_ at _five_ years old?!"

"Do not be ridiculous. I would not survive here alone of all places. I had a fellow operative accompanying me."

"Oh... okay." he said simply. "How old were they?"

"He was four I believe."

Naruto sweatdropped before said "Whatever… just lead me to the secret entrance." before he trudged off.

Mitomi blinked. _'Did I say something wrong?'_

She was brought back to reality when she noticed that Naruto was walking in the complete opposite direction to their objective. "Naruto-san! You are going the wrong way! The entrance is over here!"

Naruto halted abruptly, stumbling, and then face planted into the sand before standing back up, spitting out sediment from his mouth. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"I did." Mitomi stated. "Just now."

Naruto stuttered, trying to say something to the raven-haired Uchiha before he gave up and just walked back to her and followed her to the east side of the village, where he noticed that one brick in the sandstone wall in front of them looked out of place.

She put her right hand up in a half-ram seal and stuck her left hand out to touch the brick in question, all the while maintaining an intense look of concentration. Naruto stood there and watched her, experiencing a wave of deja vu.

Once she got the passage open, they both began walking down the long corridor illuminated by torches. How they were still lit, Naruto did not know.

A light at the end of the tunnel signified that they were getting close to entering the village. Once they made it to the exit of the passage, they began ducking behind buildings and trying not to be seen.

"What's up, Mitomi-chan? Why're we hiding?"

"We cannot just walk around with these cloaks on, Naruto-san. We look to out of place. Also, our clothes that we have on underneath bear the symbol of our clans; your Uzumaki spiral and my Uchiha fan. We must obtain new clothing to blend in and not be pinned as Konoha spies."

"Okay, that makes sense. So, where are the clothing stores at?"

"We have no money, Naruto-san. We need to steal them."

"Stealing? Oh hell yeah; that's one of my specialties, dattebayo!"

They continued hiding from the populace by jumping in between alleyways or cutting through streets with not many people walking along them. They had finally reached a shopping district of sorts and saw a clothing store in between a cafe and a flower shop, which only had desert plants like cacti. _'I wonder how Ino-chan is doing?'_ Naruto thought to himself. He quickly shook that thought from his mind however, because he knew he would just get depressed if he thought about his old home and the people living there. They walked around the store to see if there was any other access point into the establishment besides the front door.

They managed to find a small air vent, to which Naruto undid the lock and removed the cover of, and promptly wiggled his way inside. "Are you sure you are okay to do this, Naruto-san? I have training in stealth and I believe that I would be better suited for this task."

"Listen, Mitomi-chan. Although you might have a little more training than I do, I think that I'm gonna do it 'cause I've been stealing shit my whole life. The villagers all didn't take too kindly to Fuzzball, so they didn't let me buy a lot of things."

"Very well, then. I will stand outside and watch to make sure nobody witnesses this."

Naruto then began crawling through the cramped metal passage until he saw another opening that led down into the store they were looking for. He scanned the room to make sure that the shopkeeper/ customers weren't milling about before dropping in silently. He looked around the room and carefully tiptoed over to the children's size section.

He was immediately drawn to a brown high collared long-sleeved shirt with orange trimming along the arms and edges of the collar, and white cargo pants with black shinobi sandals. Naruto didn't know much about girl's fashion, so for Mitomi he grabbed a brown qipao dress with black trimming and a black obi, with black skin-tight shorts and black shinobi sandals.

He then walked over to the front desk and grabbed some loose change that was sitting on the counter. _'We might need this later.'_

He was walking briskly back to the opening in the air duct when he saw something that almost made him vomit right then and there.

There, sitting in the clearance section in the back of the store near the cash register, for only 10 ryo, was the most hideous, vile, horrible garment to ever be seen by mortal eyes:

 _Assless chaps_.

To avoid ruining the carpet from his sickness, he ran clumsily back up to the duct and crawled with renewed vigor back the way he came.

Mitomi was greeted with a panting Naruto that looked like he just lost his appetite.

"Did you get the clothes, Naruto-san?"

"Yes."

"What is wrong? Did you see something?"

"Yes."

Mitomi, although she didn't show it, was a little put off by Naruto's new attitude.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

Deciding to leave it at that, Naruto and Mitomi resumed their exploration of the village before Naruto's stomach began growling.

"Alright then, we need to see if we can find some sort of library or place that has information on your eyes or their original wielder."

"But Mitomi-chaaaaaaaaan… I'm hungryyyyy."

She sighed. "Very well, Naruto-san. I will see if there is a cafe nearby. _Then_ we shall go to the library."

After wandering the village, the duo found themselves standing outside a small cafe. The cafe was, like many of the other buildings in suna, made from sandstone and, while small, attracted a good amount of people.

Mitomi believed this to be an excellent place for them to relax before continuing their search for knowledge.

Naruto didn't care so long as he got food.

The two entered the establishment, getting more than a few looks once inside. Mitomi took this moment to realize that they both looked very conspicuous. They were two children, both under twelve years old, without any sign of a parental guardian, and nobody had ever seen them before. Thinking quickly, Mitomi grabbed Naruto's hand and ran to the counter.

At the counter stood a young woman with a perplexed look on her face, she was wearing what Mitomi believed to be her uniform and had brown hair and brown eyes. Overall a plain and average person.

Speaking up, Mitomi said "Excuse me ma'am, we're from the local orphanage, the matron allowed us to come here because we ran out of food. How much will this amount get us?" After she finished speaking she held up the pouch of ryo Naruto stole and handed it to the employee.

After hearing the younger girl's story, the woman's eyes took a softer, more sympathetic look. Taking the pouch, she began to count the small amount of ryo the kids had, only to come to the sad conclusion that they didn't have enough to buy even their cheapest item.

However when she looked up, she witnessed one of the most effective of jutsu techniques:

Koinu no Me no Jutsu (Puppy Eye Jutsu)

Forced to look upon the cute and sad looks of the two children, the woman's will crumbled almost immediately.

Unable to bear it any longer, she gave in by handing them both two halves of a sandwich.

"Here ya go kids, it's not much but it's the best I can do. And don't worry about paying, it's on the house."

Naruto, not used to the kindness, immediately began jumping up and down "Yatta! Thank you miss! You're so kind!"

Flattered by the energetic young boy's compliment, she responded "No problem, have a nice day now!"

(5 Minutes Later- Outdoor Park Bench)

Naruto and Mitomi were chowing down on their food while chatting with each other.

"So, do you think they have good ramen here in Suna?"

"Naruto-san, I do not believe that they would use their water supply on things such as ramen. Out here in the desert, they cannot obtain water easily, as it does not rain that often. I heard that they are going through some budget issues at the moment as well, so they cannot just import it from one of the surrounding countries or villages."

"So… there's no ramen in Suna?"

"I highly doubt it."

Naruto's face paled before adopting a grim face. "Tonight, we dine in hell."

"I do not know about that, Naruto-san."

"What do you mean?"

"I was hoping we could settle down for a little while, maybe lay low until ROOT or Konoha stops pursuing us."

"How long will that take?"

"I believe maybe a year or so."

Naruto curled up into the fetal position and began mumbling to himself while a raincloud loomed above his head. "No ramen… no ramen for one year… Why me? Did I do something wrong? Why must the Ramen Gods punish me this day? Give me a sign Teuchi-ojisan! Give me a sign that there is something else to live for! Ayame-neechan, save me from this hell!"

Sighing at her friend's antics, Mitomi dragged him back to the park bench and continued eating her sandwich.

"Naruto-san, I think we should take this opportunity to get to know each other."

"We already know each other, Mitomi-chan. Aren't we friends?"

"Yes, Naruto-san, we are… friends, but how much do we _really_ know about each other? Besides your eyes and your clan as well as your 'problem', I know nothing about you. You only know that I am an ex-ROOT operative and an Uchiha. If we are going to travel the elemental nations together, I believe we should strengthen our bonds by telling each other about ourselves."

"Alright, I guess." Naruto said simply. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!" he started off. "I like ramen, sleeping, Ayame-neechan, Teuchi-ojisan, Jiji, Sasuke-teme, you, and Mikoto-oba..." He got a far-off look in his eyes when he said his surrogate mother's name. "I hate expensive things, asshole villagers, and Uchiha Itachi." He paused for a second like before, but this time, a look of pure rage washed over his face.

Seeing where this was going, Mitomi quickly began speaking in order to divert Naruto's attention away from his thoughts. "Well, my name is Uchiha Mitomi. I do not 'like' very many things apart from rice balls, quiet places, and y-you as well I-I suppose..." She got a bit flustered before regaining her composure and continued eating. " I dislike crowded and loud places, Danzo-sama, and a select few ROOT operatives."

They finished their food in a comfortable silence, enjoying the scenery of Sunagakure. The pair thanked the server for her kindness once again; Mitomi then asked her for directions to the nearest library. Once she supplied them with the information, they navigated towards their destination with a map that Mitomi had drawn based on the information given. On their way there, Mitomi made sure to remind Naruto of their purpose of going there. In a hushed voice, she explained what they were going to do.

"Now Naruto, remember, we are going here for the sole purpose of gathering information; Reconnaissance, if you will. Do not tell anybody about the true reason we are here. Tell them a story that would not be that farfetched so that we do not arouse suspicion. What we need are books or scrolls, or anything that pertains to the Rikudou Sennin and/or his eyes."

"Yeah, yeah. I got this, Mitomi-chan. You're telling me this as if I was an idiot."

"Well..."

"OI!"

(A Few Minutes Later- Sunagakure Library)

The duo found themselves at the bottom of a large set of stairs leading to the entrance of the Sunagakure library. As they began their ascent, Naruto was taken aback by the appearance of the building. It was made of a refined sandstone and built with stone statues of famous historical figures surrounding it, Naruto didn't know the names of these people but, because of how they were portrayed, he was sure they were incredibly important.

The library's entrance consisted of a row of several stone pillars. Eventually they were met with the large doors leading into the library. The doors were made of a dry wood and were obviously old due to the several small cracks splintering across the surface.

Pushing the door open Naruto's gaze turned into one of pure awe. The interior of the building was almost nothing like the exterior, while the outside was a lighter tone, the inside was a dark cinnamon in color, giving it a much warmer ambience. There were rows upon rows of bookcases, each containing a plethora of volumes on a myriad of topics.

In between each column of bookcases there were tables, obviously meant to be used by visitors to sit down and read through their individual books and scrolls.

Naruto was shaken from his reverie when Mitomi placed a hand on his shoulder, looking over he saw that she appeared to be slightly concerned.

"Naruto-san, are you well? You appeared to be distracted." she asked

Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts before finally turning to his companion, his signature smile back on his face, before finally replying.

"I'm fine Mitomi-chan, it's just that… This is the first time I've been able to get into a library."

Mitomi was unsure of how to respond to that. She knew that Naruto was a social outcast and was most likely not allowed the same privileges as other children, but to not be able to enter a library? An institution where people may expand their knowledge without charge? Mitomi had no idea the people of Konoha could be so cruel.

Deciding to move on from this train of conversation, Mitomi told Naruto that the best and fastest way to find what they wanted was to divide and conquer, meaning while Mitomi was checking out one side of the library, Naruto would be doing the same at another section.

Once they finished discussing their plan of action, the two children split up and went to their positions. Mitomi began pulling books off the shelves one by one, putting the previous book back where it came from.

Naruto, on the other hand, not having been taught proper library etiquette, was peeling the books off one by one, like Mitomi, but threw them all over the floor. Some of them, he never even bothered to close. This caught the attention of many of the visitors, as well as employees.

One girl in particular was completely miffed, as well as angry, as to why someone would treat books that way. Granted, it was a child doing this, but couldn't their parents teach them any manners? Though she was a child herself, and she also has no parents, but...

Naruto just minded his own business, ignoring the looks he received from the villagers; after all, that _was_ something he was used to. While he continued rummaging through the bookshelves trying to find the right book to gather information on, he noticed a mop of bright red hair making its way towards him. Deciding to ignore it, he went right back to searching for what he was looking for.

Akane was mad. She had never in her short life seen such disregard for these tomes of knowledge. She watched as a spikey-haired blond kid wearing sunglasses- _inside-_ literally tore books from the shelves and threw them all behind him. If that wasn't bad enough, he wouldn't keep his voice down. She constantly heard him mutter things like "Son of a bitch." "No… not that one…" "Where the fuck is it?"

Deciding that she had heard enough, she tapped the boy in question on the shoulder, to which he turned around, seeing what she wanted. "Yeah? What is it?" He asked, in a rather blunt fashion.

"What do you mean 'What is it?'" Don't you know that you're not supposed to treat books in such a way? What the hell is wrong with you?!" Akane all but yelled, completely disregarding her thoughts from earlier about keeping quiet.

Hearing the commotion from all the way across the library, Mitomi stood up from her seat at one of the many tables littered throughout the establishment. She sighed before walking towards her companion to see what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into this time.

She walked up to where she assumed Naruto was, but couldn't see him through the rather large wall of books. Once she removed a few to be able to get through to her friend, she noticed a rather flamboyant child not too much older than themselves chewing him out for the way he treated the books. Looking at her, she seemed… out of place. As if she wasn't from Suna. Nobody, that she knew of, had caramel skin in the Desert Paradise. She decided to not think about it; she didn't want to come to conclusions, after all.

She approached the redhead and began to come to the aid of her blond friend.

"Hello." Akane turned around to find a smiling Mitomi; however, something about the smile was off… as if she had to practice it. Deciding to return the kind gesture, she smiled back at the newcomer, before said person spoke again. "Hello, miss. Sorry about my friend here, he can be a bit… dense at times."

"Oi."

"My name is Mitomi, no surname. Me and my friend Naruto here, also no surname, reside at the orphanage." Remembering her comment about Naruto's parents earlier, her smile wavered a bit into a sheepish expression. "I hope he didn't cause too much trouble here? I will help put these books back to atone for my friend's antics." she continued. Akane continued smiling at Mitomi, but now maintained a glare in Naruto's direction. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll clean this up myself. My name's Akane, by the way; also no surname."

"Once again, I apologize. You see, Naruto has never been to a library, so he never got a chance to learn the proper etiquette when in an establishment such as this." At that, Akane's eyes widened considerably. _'What? How could you never have been to the library before?'_

Seeing Akane's expression, Mitomi decided to elaborate, without giving the whole truth of course. "Where we are from, Naruto was cast away from normal society. They kicked him out of many buildings on a regular basis, only because they did not like him. Perhaps his parents were not the best of people and they take out their frustration on him since his parents are not around. I do not know." She widened her eyes even more when she heard Mitomi's explanation. _'He's… he's like Gaara and me!'_

She softened her gaze on the boy, who by this point had his head down. All of a sudden, her eyes grew wide again _'Oh shit… Gaara! I was supposed to meet him today!'_ Her head shot up and she quickly said "E-excuse me… I forgot that I have some… urgent business to attend to." before rushing out the library's front door, leaving a dust trail in her wake.

Mitomi turned back to Naruto who still had his head down. "Come on, Naruto-san. We have to continue searching for the right books." When he didn't respond, she asked. "Naruto-san, what is wrong?"

"Were...were my parents… bad people?" he muttered. A wave of guilt washed over Mitomi, who then promptly began consoling Naruto. "Your parents were not bad, I don't think. I just said that in order to lessen Akane-san's anger towards you. They were good people, I am sure of it."

' _If only you knew, Naruto-san, if only you knew.'_

(Elsewhere In Sunagakure- With Akane)

' _Shit! I forgot all about our meetup today! Hopefully he's not mad at me...'_

These sort of thoughts were the only thing that Akane could think about when searching for her fellow redhead. She'd already looked everywhere for him. The playground, the Kazekage's mansion (or at least the outside; they wouldn't let her go in since she wasn't the Kazekage or at least related to him in some way), and the rooftops of all the buildings.

Just when she thought that she wouldn't be able to find him, she heard screaming coming from one of the lesser populated districts in Suna. When she looked in the general direction of where she thought the scream came from, she saw a wall of sand forming in an alleyway between two buildings.

' _Oh no… Gaara!'_

(With Naruto and Mitomi- Sunagakure Library)

By this point, Naruto calmed down and was acting like his old self again. Unfortunately, that did not mean everything was going well... for Mitomi, at least.

"Mitomi-chan, I'm booooored!" cried Naruto in a desperate plea for a break from sifting through books all day long. "It's been several hours! Can't we take a break?"

After an hour of enduring his insistent complaining, Mitomi relented. "*Sigh* Fine, Naruto-san. We will take a _short_ break. We might as well familiarize ourselves with the layout of the village since we will be staying here for an extensive amount of time."

The duo of children once again found themselves wandering through the streets of Sunagakure with no particular destination in mind. As they walked towards a more weathered section of the village, they noticed that the population began to thin out quite considerably as they ventured deeper into that area. People who were walking around began giving them wierd and apprehensive looks, as if they wanted to warn them about something.

"Man, what's the deal with all of these people?" questioned Naruto, confused at the looks people were giving him. "I do not know, Naruto-san." replied an equally miffed Mitomi. Undeterred by this; however, they continued, until they came upon something gruesome. As they turned a corner, they were met with a large bloodstain on the ground with chunks of _something_ scattered around said bloodstain. Also shrewn about the area were pieces of cloth, most likely clothing.

The smell was the worst part; no matter where they turned they could not get away from the obnoxious odor of blood and innards that seemed to seep into the very air around them. For Mitomi this was nothing new, simply the result of a powerful jutsu on someone much less so, possibly even a civilian caught in the crossfire. She herself had employed a variety of jutsus that had similar results, albeit not as... messy. Naruto, she noticed, was not holding up as well as she was. His entire form was trembling as he took in the scene of carnage. Inevitably, it became too much for him as he fell on all fours and empty his stomach on the sand that comprised the normally clean street. She looked on in silence as her friend added to the already disgusting scene, unsure of how to proceed. On one hand they were likely in terrible danger. Due to the fact that the body- or lack thereof- was fresh, and whatever killed the poor soul was probably still in the area, they should leave, lest they themselves get killed. On the other, Naruto was in no shape to even attempt running. Coming to a conclusion, she walked toward him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Naruto, noticing the sudden presence, looked up to see Mitomi's face through tear-stained eyes. In return she stared at him with a look of… pity? Remorse? Naruto couldn't tell, but he held onto her hand as if it were a lifeline, in that moment he felt almost numb and, although small, Mitomi's help was very appreciated. Gaining the willpower, Naruto shot a small, shaky smile toward Mitomi, to which she responded in kind. However, unlike before, this one was genuine.

The moment was lost when their attention was brought to the sound of what appeared to be sobbing.

Regaining their bearings, the two made their way toward where the sound was coming from: an alleyway near the remains of the body. Now more than a little concerned, Naruto began walking toward the sound. This action did not go unnoticed by his companion, who was now beginning to worry for her friends state of mind. You don't just run into an alleyway, after all.

After what seemed to be an eternity, but in reality was only several seconds, they reached the end of the alley, where before them was a young child, possibly younger than they were, crying. Concerned, Naruto reached towards the child, only to be surprised when a dome of sand engulfed the boy, causing him to give a yelp of fear as he yanked his hand back. When the dome dissipated it revealed the boy looking at them with fear-addled, bloodshot eyes. Closer inspection revealed the kid had black rings around his eyes, making him look similar to a raccoon. His hair was blood red, which contrasted strongly with his sea green, pupiless eyes. Above his left eyebrow, at least where his eyebrows _should_ have been, was the Kanji for 'Love' in a bright red color.

Before either of the duo could react, the child in front of them let loose a shriek before a harsh killing intent began permeating the air surrounding them.

" **GET AWAY FROM ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!"** shouted the obviously troubled boy.

Suddenly a wave of sand formed and slammed into the pair of runaways, sending them stumbling back toward the entrance of the alley.

Mitomi and Naruto scrambled to their feet and prepared for another attack that never came. The sand that was poised to crash down upon them stopped in midair, and slowly retracted. Naruto and Mitomi were confused as to why he stopped, until they looked in front of them.

Standing there with her arms outstretched, defending them, was Akane.

* * *

 **Holy shit, guys. I am SO SORRY for this _very_ overdue chapter. Family issues that I'd rather not dive into have been happening in and out of state so I've done quite a but of traveling, plus school started for me so now I have to put a lot of focus into that (AP classes suck, yo). If that wasn't enough, I start work soon, so I have to focus on _that_ as well. **

**I'll try to set up some sort of loose schedule for me to follow to at least get chapters out on a regular basis for you guys, but I'm not sure how that will work out. I don't want to set up a strict schedule for me to follow because then it will feel like an obligation to write, when I only do this as a hobby in my spare time, and it'll ruin my motivation. For now at least, I'll try to get a chapter out every couple of weeks, maybe sooner if I have the time and/or the motivation to do so.**

 **Once again, I am _really_ sorry about the long-ass delay, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **(P.S., The whole 'assless chaps' thing was one of my friend's ideas. We both laughed our asses off even though, looking back at it, it didn't seem that hilarious. I decided to leave it in regardless.)**

 **Awesomesauce out.**


	8. Shelter

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: Hn. I don't own the dobe._

 **Chapter 8: Shelter**

"A-Akane?" stuttered a bewildered Gaara, "What are you doing here? Why are you protecting _them_?"

"I'm here because I was looking for you, Gaara. "The redhead stated. "I'm protecting them because they are my friends." At that, everybody's eyes widened. "W-What do you mean 'they are my friends'?! Am I not your friend anymore?" Gaara asked.

"No! I... I mean yes! You are my friend! But these two are also friends of mine, Tanuki-kun!" Hearing his old nickname caused him to lessen the intensity of the glare he was giving Naruto and Mitomi. He also lowered his wave of sand, which came crashing down around the four children.

Not knowing what to do, the two outsiders just stood on either side of Akane, watching them. All of a sudden, Gaara fell forward onto his knees, screaming. He had his right hand clutching his head while the left one kept him off the ground.

 **"You are replacing me... I will not cease to exist! Mother always warned me about talking to people... They would just betray me... Like YOU!"**

His eyes were shut tight, tears streaming down his face. Gaara felt someone walking toward him. He braced himself to get attacked or for them to run away, but when he opened his eyes, he saw brilliant red hair flowing in the wind that his sand churned up. He looked down the source of said hair to find Akane... hugging him?

He felt wetness stain his shoulder and chest. He looked closer and saw that she was crying. Not knowing how to react, he just sat there, listening to the sound of his best friend sobbing. He looked up again to find Naruto's hand on Akane's shoulder. Mitomi, seeing this, also replicated the action on her other shoulder, although not knowing what the purpose was. They both smiled at Gaara, letting him know that there is nothing to be afraid of and that they were not here to hurt him or replace him in any way shape or form. It almost seemed... inviting, as if they were asking to be his friends as well.

His headache immediately stopped. Gaara stood up, prompting Akane to let go of him. She backed up awkwardly while wiping the tears from her face. "Sorry," she said "I doubt you wanna see me like this."

"Well..." Akane continued awkwardly, "I suppose it's time for introductions. I am Akane of the Hidden Sand. I enjoy reading, learning, and supporting the village in any way I can."

Naruto's hand shot up. "Oh! Ooh! Pick me! Me!" Akane and Mitomi let out a sigh before Mitomi answered "Yes, Naruto, you can go next."

"Sweet! Let's see... My name is U... Naruto!" He paused for a second with a look of surprise on his face, realizing what he was saying at the last minute. Nevertheless, he continued. "I enjoy ramen, friends, the lady at the sandwich shop, ramen, and..." he babbled on. While Naruto continued off in his own little world, Mitomi took the liberty of introducing herself next. "Hello, I am Mitomi. I enjoy quietness and alone time." At that, she sent a subtle glare towards Naruto.

Realizing that everyone was looking at him expectantly, Gaara began. "M-My name is Sabaku no Gaara. I like friends and..." He paused, trying to think of something else. "I… enjoy being with my brother and sister."

What followed was a silent pause, everyone glancing at each other, no one really knowing where to go from there. After a moment of just awkwardly staring at each other, the silence was finally broken when an elderly voice rang out.

"What are you kids doing?"

The group turned around simultaneously to see the weathered face of Lady Chiyo scrutinizing them. "Chiyo-baasama!" exclaimed Akane.

"Who is the old lady, Mitomi-chan?"Naruto questioned rather nonchalantly. Mitomi blanched on the inside. _'How could he not know Lady Chiyo, one of the advisors of the Kazekage as well as the founder of the infamous Elite Puppet Corps?! Well, someone of Naruto-san's… caliber would most likely only know of officials affiliated within his own village, and not concern himself with the politics of the other nations.'_

"Why hello, Akane-chan! I see you're with your friends. I recognize little Gaara here, but what about you two? I 've never seen you around before. Would you mind introducing yourselves to this little old lady?"

Seeing Naruto began to panic, Mitomi stepped in and began speaking. "Hello, Lady Chiyo of Sunagakure, advisor of the Kazekage and founder of the esteemed Puppet Corps. I am Mitomi and this one here is my friend, Naruto. We are pleased to make your acquaintance. We are new arrivals to the orphanage and have only been in the village for a few days."

"Well you're quite the well-informed, polite little child aren't you, young one? Indeed, I am Lady Chiyo of Sunagakure no Sato. The pleasure is mine."

Lady Chiyo, observing the situation and seeing how stressed everyone was, decided to invite the children for a meal to calm their nerves. Shifting focus to her apprentice, Lady Chiyo spoke. "Seeing as how you weren't able to make it to class because of urgent matters, after we have a quick meal, how would you like it if I made it up to you with a quick training session, Akane-chan?"

The person in question nearly jumped out of her sandals when she heard what she thought she heard. "Me.. train with you? In private?!" the female redhead exclaimed. "Why yes, child. Why do you think I made you my apprentice in the first place?"

As they approached her estate, all of the children stared in awe at what they saw. Her house, like most of the other buildings in Suna, was made of weathered sandstone brick. The house was two stories tall and there were pillars lining the outside of the house supporting a traditionally-shaped roof made out of red brick shingles overhanging the porch, which stretched all around the building. In her front yard, despite being in the middle of the desert, she had a lush, green garden full of flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors littering the grounds. Around the back, there was a fairly large expanse of land that was mostly barren. She lead the trio of children to this area and sat Naruto and Mitomi down, while leading Akane farther down the compound before stopping a fair distance away from the other two children.

"Are you ready to begin, my apprentice?" Lady Chiyo asked. "You know it, Chiyo-baasama!" Akane shouted back excitedly.

"Very well then." she paused, pulling a scroll from her pack. "Shirohigi: Jikki Chikamatsu no Shu (Secret White Move: Chikamatsu's 10 Puppets.)" From the scroll emerged 10 puppets dressed in flowing white robes, each with their own unique appearances and builds.

Akane, seeing Chiyo summon her puppets, decided to reveal her own. She opened the box with what seemed to be the lift of a single finger, and shouted "Come on out, Grieving Widow!" from the coffin-like box emerged Akane's puppet, modeled like a generic, thinly built female, which was dressed in a flowing black robe as dark as night, in stark contrast to Chiyo's puppets' outfits.

It was the type of dress that someone would wear attending a funeral. The puppet let out a high-pitched wail that seemed to make the very air around them vibrate. The puppet had bleached white hair done in a bun, with bangs framing her face, reaching to her shoulders. Covering her eyes was a black veil, equally as dark as her outfit.

"Start!" Lady Chiyo shouted out. In an instant, Akane shot forward, her hands outstretched, along with her puppet, immediately initiating the offensive. Chiyo adopted a defensive stance while adjusting her puppets accordingly. Widow's jaw unhinged to reveal what looked to be the long, cylindrical steel rod, that was hollow on the inside. It proceeded to shoot explosive kunai at Lady Chiyo. Despite her old age, she effortlessly evaded the onslaught, and the kunai detonated harmlessly a few yards behind her.

Surprise was evident on her face as she had not expected a mere child's puppet to possess such dangerous weaponry. To keep up the assault on her teacher, Akane flicked the chakra strings attached to the puppet, causing the rod to retract back into Grieving Widow's mouth, and two extremely sharp blades protruded from the puppet's palms.

From the eyes of a non-puppeteer, it appeared that the strings were being strummed while in reality the strings were being split for a more precise movement. This movement of the chakra allowed the puppet to emit a sound which severely disoriented the foe, giving the impression that the puppet was singing. The song's various notes would employ a genjutsu, causing the mind to become assaulted by large amounts of pain throughout its duration.

This of course had no effect on Akane, it was then that she rushed Lady Chiyo with her puppet, taking advantage of the disorientation amidst her forces. However, while some were still unable to move, the puppet master still had control over a majority of them, sending two to intercept Akane's attack. While two of her puppets kept Akane's at bay, she sent two more toward the now defenseless apprentice. Letting out a yelp of surprise, Akane jumped back while simultaneously calling Widow back. Despite this, Chiyo continued to press onward, using the two puppets that were already approaching the child in one combined attack.

Reacting on instinct, Akane moved to have Widow block the oncoming attack, though she was hard-pressed to do so. Chiyo, seeing her distress pressed harder, intending on a quick end. In an act of desperation, Akane launched a kunai from behind her puppet, aiming at Chiyo's one weak point: Her chakra strings.

Chiyo's eyes widened slightly, not expecting that particular maneuver from her new student. Acting quickly, she moved one of her puppets backwards to catch the kunai, only to throw it back at Akane's own chakra strings, effectively reversing her own attack. Akane; however, unlike Lady Chiyo, was unable to defend herself against the return attack, which resulted in her own chakra strings being severed. Taking advantage of her child prodigy's confusion, she rushed forward and surrounded Akane with the remainder of her 10 puppets, announcing the match as over and she the victor.

Chiyo approached her apprentice with a smile on her face. "Even in a 10 versus 1 situation, I'm very pleased with how strong you held your own. I'm very intrigued as to how a young girl such as yourself acquired such a unique puppet". She walked over to the figure lying face first on the ground with her white hair dropping onto the floor. She then picked up the chakra-less puppet. The veil didn't reveal much of its wooden face. Its mouth hung agape showing the inside of the puppet. " This looks like quite the puppet if I do say so myself". She took one last glance at the grim puppet and gave it back to Akane.

The whole fight that had unfolded in front of Naruto had enthralled him; Mitomi could have sworn that she had seen a gleam in his eyes as the fight transpired. The fight was one he had never seen before. Their attacking with control over wooden marionettes had sent a shiver down his spine. The fight had given him an idea. Naruto sprang to his feet and, before Mitomi could get a word in, he had full blown sprinted to Lady Chiyo. He stood bouncing up and down while gleefully saying "That was such an epic fight, dattebayo! You've gotta train me to fight like that, please Chiyo-baachan!" Chiyo's expression instantly soured when she heard Naruto call her 'grandma.'

"Listen here, you little brat: I may be old, but I still have some life left in this old body of mine, understand?" Naruto, who was still bouncing on his heels, excited to get down to training, nodded rapidly with a stupid grin on his face, obviously not registering a word she had just said.

Lady Chiyo released a sigh of resignation, she was too old to be dealing with this kind of thing. Glancing over Naruto, who was still waiting in anticipation, she began to idly look him over when her eyes locked onto his face. She couldn't place it, but she knew she had seen his face before..

Mitomi looked outside and saw that the sun was setting. "Wait, the sun is going down. The fight was not that long, was it?" Naruto looked outside and he too saw that it was progressive getting darker. He turned to Mitomi with a bit of worry in his eyes. "It's getting dark. We have little time to find a place to stay" Mitomi started to ponder for an idea before her mind was cut short by the voice of Chiyo interjecting. "Don't say such nonsense. You will be staying the night here, of course"

At that, Akane's eyes lit up brighter than the moon and her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "I get to stay at Lady Chiyo's house?!" she picked up Naruto by the hands and started swinging him around. Eventually, they both began dancing around in circles with each other. Mitomi smiled at the display, after which, Lady Chiyo interrupted the moment. "Alright, you little brats, time for bed!" she waved the children into her home, giving them an impromptu tour of the premises.

She then lead them to what would be their room, a few sleeping bags spread out on the floor for them to sleep in. "Goodnight, brats." Lady Chiyo smiled at the trio before closing the door and walking down the hall to retire to her own room for the night.

(An Hour Later)

Naruto couldn't sleep. Strange, considering all of the day's events, but he sat in his sleeping bag, staring out of the window in the room at the rooftops of the neighboring buildings and the starry night sky, alone with his thoughts. Or so he thought.

"Can't sleep either, huh?" Naruto looked behind him to see Akane sitting up in her bag, watching him intently. "Nah, I'm not that tired." Akane looked down for a moment, unsure of how to continue the conversation, before she looked back at him and asked "So.. How come I haven't seen you around before today? I'm sure I would've remembered running into a blondie like you, but I can't say I have."

Naruto took a moment to respond, weighing his options. In the end, he didn't really see the harm in telling her his story, although he'd leave out the part about Fuzzball. "I'm.. actually not from around here. My home is.. or was in Konoha. Mitomi and I just arrived here today." This caught Akane by surprise. "Why'd you leave your home? I always heard good things about Konoha; why leave that for this place?"

"Well.. in Konoha, I was always an outcast. They saw me for something that I wasn't. No one really cared about me." _His past sounds a lot like Gaara's'_ Akane noted. "I never knew my real parents, but I did have someone who I'd proudly call my mother. Someone who saw me for who I really was." This puzzled Akane. Why would he leave if he held someone in Konoha in such high regard? "But.. she isn't here anymore. She was killed. Murdered. By her own family. I swore to myself that I would find answers. I know who killed her, fuck, I watched him do it. Right in front of me and my friend. I want to find him and ask him why. Why would he do something like that? He said that.. that it was to 'test his new ability', whatever the fuck that means. But I know there must be more to it than that."

Akane was shocked. He'd gone through so much; having everything taken away from him in an instant, then, having nothing left, he ran. All the way to Suna. Naruto then took off his sunglasses for the first time since she'd met him, setting them aside on the floor next to his back. His eyes were closed. "I think.. I also think that he's the reason for my eyes." he opened his eyes fully for the first time that day, and what Akane saw shocked her even further. His eyes… they weren't normal. They were purple in color and ringed; even the sclera. They looked… hypnotizing. She remembered reading about eyes like that in the library once.. "The Rinnegan!" Akane yelled. "SHHHHH!" Naruto frantically waved his arms about. "Don't yell it out! It's a secret!"

She immediately put one hand over her mouth and blushed severely. "Oops. Sorry." she said pathetically. "It's alright. I don't think anyone heard us." Akane was absolutely floored. This child has the doujutsu that once belonged to the Rikudou Sennin! The original ninja! She watched as he closed his eyes once more and placed the sunglasses back on. He sighed heavily once more before turning to her. "So what about you? What's your story, Akane-chan?" a bit perturbed at how Naruto could act so casually dismissive despite the severity of the topic, she began.

"W-well, I honestly don't know much about my past. I just woke up one day at the gates of Suna 2 years ago, no memory whatsoever. I already knew that I was different from the others before I even integrated into society in this place. There is no one with the same skin color as me, and besides Gaara, I'm the only one with red hair in this village. I've been singled out not only for my relationship with Tanuki-kun, but my appearance as well. I don't belong here, but this is all I know. This is my home."

Satisfied with her response to Naruto's inquiry, she said "Good night, Naruto-san. I'll show you around the village tomorrow, so get some rest." Naruto took a moment before responding. "I'd like that, Akane-chan. Good night."

(The Next Morning)

Naruto was not, by any means, a morning person. This was made evident when Akane and Mitomi had finished their morning routine, and Naruto was still preoccupied with his impression of a chainsaw, snoring loudly in his sleeping bag.

Eventually both of the girls decided they couldn't handle it anymore. Letting out a sigh of annoyance, Akane slowly crept up to Naruto with Mitomi close behind. She held up a fist before slyly smiling at her de facto partner in crime, signaling Mitomi to do the same. On the count of three, they both hit Naruto over his head with quite a lot of force for two small children, leaving a large red bump throbbing comically atop the now awake and irate Uzumaki. Shooting up from his sleeping position, Naruto barked "What the hell?! What was that for, dattebayo?!"

"Learn to wake up on time, Naruto-san." Akane simply said. "On time? It's six o'clock in the fucking morning! I don't get up for another 3 hours, damn it!" Naruto retorted. At that moment, Lady Chiyo opened the door to their room. "What's all this racket? Breakfast is ready, brats. Come on and get it."

"Freaking old bat.." Naruto muttered. He suddenly felt chills and he began shaking uncontrollably when he saw Chiyo give him a cold, blank stare that promised pain if he continued speaking in the manner that he was.

The three children all followed Lady Chiyo into the kitchen, where she sat them down at the table with their food spread out before them. Each child had two rice balls and a stew with carrots and potatoes, with a glass of water. All three children devoured their food in what seemed to be one gulp.

Chiyo blinked a couple times at what she just witnessed. _'Just how hungry were these kids anyway?'_ she thought grimly. Shaking her head, she returned to the counter and began preparing more food. As she was going around, adding some leftovers to their plates, she spoke. "Today will mark the start of your training regimen, so it's for the best you get as much food in your stomach as possible. I'm not known for my forgiving nature, after all." she stated forebodingly.

With the children fed and awake, Chiyo took them out to the expanse of land by her residence to begin their training. They walked out to a decently-sized tree that towered above the children, and provided much needed shade to their already sweating forms. "First thing's first," Chiyo began, "Naruto, would you be so kind as to remove those glasses of yours? They'll just get in the way during this exercise." At that, Naruto began staring at his feet and swirling them around in the sand nervously with his hands behind his back "I d-don't think I can do that. I.." he paused. "..have an eye allergy!" He suddenly perked up with a nervous smile plastered on his face.

Chiyo stared at him skeptically before looking over at Mitomi, who had an almost undetectable hint of worry on her face, but nonetheless was still there. In the blink of an eye, Chiyo appeared in front of Naruto and pulled the glasses off of his face, revealing his purple, ringed eyes before he had a chance to close them.

Naruto tried to cover them from view, to which Chiyo stated "Naruto, I already knew about your eyes. Ever since I first saw you, I knew what you were hiding." It's not every day that you see a child from a foreign land wander into Suna, plus you only try to conceal your eyes on the physical level. I can still detect immense chakra coming from your eyes, barely restrained. You must know how to control this, or someone else that's not as nice as me can find you from miles away."

Mitomi then spoke up after a tense moment of silence, "Then how was he not discovered prior to you, Chiyo-sama? No one has displayed even the slightest malicious or otherwise interest in Naruto-san since we have arrived here."

"Because" Chiyo explained, "the chakra pouring out of Naruto-kun's eyes here is not the same as normal chakra that is used in everyday life, such as ninjutsu. This is a special type of energy. 'Natural' energy if you will. I can confidently say that he can detect not only chakra signatures, but the life forces of any living being. Only those with enough practice in wielding or sensing natural energy can detect it, such as the toads of Mount Myoboku or the monks of the Fire Temple.

"What else can you tell us about them, Lady Chiyo-sama?" Mitomi asked, sensing an opportunity to learn more about Naruto's eyes. Her hopes were crushed however when she saw elderly puppet master shrug her shoulders.

"Nothing substantial, unfortunately. What else I know only comes from legends and rumors, which state that the wielder of the Rinnegan has access to abilities that equal or surpass that of Gods. Some claim that they even have the ability to manipulate the forces of gravity itself. Of course this is only rumor, but if _any_ of it is true...well, the Rinnegan was also only a legend up until recently." Lady Chiyo finished, a now ominous tone in the air.

Naruto was reeling back from this information, everything he had just heard only made him want to be rid of his "gift". How was anyone supposed to be able to deal with this kind of power, much less a kid like himself?

As if noticing his distress, Mitomi, unsure of what to do, placed a hand on his shoulder, as if to comfort him. Naruto looked up, surprised by the gesture, before giving off a smile and nodding, to signify he was okay. Mitomi didn't know why, but something about seeing that smile felt...nice.

Akane was barely keeping it together, all she wanted to do was make a few friends and the first people she meets turns out to have one of the strongest and most legendary dojutsus in history?! What, was she a magnet for this kind of thing?! Gaara was more than enough in that department thank you!

Chiyo was amused and more than a little interested by the many different reactions her new pupils had. Although they were but children, not even in their teens, they were taking the news surprisingly better than what she expected. It brought back memories of a better time, when she was teaching a small red-haired boy…

Breaking away from her musings, she spoke loudly to get their attention. "As fascinating as this subject is, we don't have time to discuss it in detail at the moment. It's in our best interest to get training as soon as we can."

"Right! So what's first, grandma?" piped up Naruto. This caused a visible tick mark to appear on Chiyo's head, but she chose to overlook the comment. "First up is the tree walking exercise. I'll demonstrate." Chiyo walked up to the tree and then put one foot on the trunk, and then kept walking at the same pace up the tree without stopping, hopping down once she reached the top branches with grace unexpected of a woman her age.

Mitomi watched intently, not making any remarks or facial expressions aside from her usual impassive stare. Akane on the other hand had stars in her eyes, watching Chiyo 'climb' the tree with ease. Naruto just looked baffled. He had no idea anyone was capable of doing such things. He inwardly facepalmed at himself for not knowing this technique when he painted the Hokage monument; that would have made it so much easier!

"Now," she said, "you do it." Akane shot up to go first, stopping in front of the tree, closing her eyes to concentrate. She then began running up the tree, but about halfway up, she shot off of the tree like a rocket, leaving a crater the size of her foot in the bark. She landed somewhat gracefully on the floor at the base of the trunk, surprised at what had just occurred.

Akane looked toward Chiyo for approval, to which the aged woman nodded her head, satisfied with the results. "That was a good first attempt, Akane-chan. But you put too much chakra in your feet as you were climbing, hence you flying off of the tree. Try to reign in your chakra and keep it more controlled, then you should get it with ease." To that, Akane nodded excitedly, eager to perfect the art of tree climbing to please her instructor and idol. Mitomi stepped up to the tree next, her usual calm demeanor being shown. Without a moment's hesitation, she ran up the tree with no difficulty and sat atop one of the sturdy branches in the canopy. Chiyo smiled at that. ' _There's more to this one than I thought.'_ she mused to herself.

Seeing how his fellow friends did on their first attempts, he eagerly paced the sand, ready to try his hand at this exercise. He backed up to get a running start, and bolted toward the large tree. He put his first foot on the trunk and raised his second to follow suit, but fell off and landed on the back of his head, eliciting a facepalm from Akane and small chuckle from Chiyo.

Not understanding what he did wrong, Naruto stood up yelling, and then hit the tree, not-so-subtly trying to conceal the pain of his bare fist contacting the hard wood. "You need to channel chakra into your feet, Naruto. Not doing so will get you nowhere." Chiyo stated bluntly. "How the hell do I do that?" spat the irate blonde. "Focus on your chakra inside of your body. Pull it toward the soles of your feet, and maintain it." Chiyo advised.

Having calmed down, Naruto looked up at the tree with a comical expression on his face, his eyes squinted and his mouth molded into a frown. He looked down at the base of the tree once more and then closed his eyes. He imagined the chakra circulating in his coils, and then directed that feeling toward his feet. They felt much heavier, but that's how he could tell it was working. He opened his eyes once more and began dashing toward the tree again. This time, on his third step up the tree, a loud _crunch_ could be heard, followed by Naruto skidding across the sandy floor to a stop yards away from the tree. Once the upturned sand settled, everyone looked at the tree once more to find a massive hole two times the size of Naruto's foot clean through it, scorch marks lining the inside of the hole.

Naruto was furious, what went wrong this time?! Grumbling to himself as he got up to dust himself off, a pain in his legs confirmed his suspicions of having a couple of bruises to deal with in the near future. He quickly made his way over to the tree, determined to see this through. On Chiyo's end, she was impressed by Naruto's perseverance, although she had her own questions as to why he was already having a harder time than either of his companions. Speaking of, as Chiyo's attention settled on the two girls, noting the looks of sympathy they were giving him.

' _At least he's not alone in this…'_ she thought happily. Her thoughts took a somewhat darker tone, however, when she noticed he was still having a hard time with the exercise. "Naruto, have you been trained in any way regarding chakra or your 'friend'?" Chiyo asked, not looking forward to the boy's answer. "Nope." he said flatly. "I was just enrolled in the academy, but no one cared enough to try and help me." Naruto replied somewhat glumly. Naruto realized by now that she knew all there is to know about him regarding his origins and even his secrets, so he spoke to her matter-of-factly, as if she had context in every situation she spoke to him about, which she did for the most part.

Chiyo blanched inwardly when she heard the child's response, although she would be lying if she didn't expect it. "Just what the hell does Konoha think they're doing? They can't train their own jinchuuriki?" she asked in disbelief.

"Gin-churro what?" asked Naruto dumbly. "Jinchuuriki, Naruto. It is what the human vessels of the tailed beasts are referred to as." Chiyo explained. _'He's just like Gaara!'_ thought Akane as she listened to the conversation; Mitomi not showing any emotion as usual, as she already knew all of this.

Chiyo let the information revealed to her sink in. One thing's for sure: there is going to be _much_ more training than originally thought.

 **A/N: Greetings! My friend and I apologize for the long overdue chapter. I had multiple family emergencies as well as school to take care of, not to mention I'm now employed (: If it's any consolation, I have been planning many chapters ahead while on this year and a half hiatus, therefore making me able to update more frequently and more easily. Not to mention that my writing may or may not have improved since the last time I've touched this fanfiction. Cheers to those who still keep up with my lateness and general inability to write, as well as general laziness and lack of motivation.**


	9. Storm Season

**The Black Sheep**

 _I don't own Naruto, 'ttebayo!_

 **Chapter 9: Storm Season**

Chiyo stood with her hands behind her back in a drill sergeant-esque manner, eyeing each of the three children carefully. It had been two days since she had invited the three to stay in her home, using each available moment to train them. Well, train the blonde and redhead at least. The raven-haired one seemed to already have a good grasp on chakra control and manipulation. Akane also had a good degree of chakra control due to her talent with her puppeteering, but still had room for improvement. Thus, she had them standing outside in her rather large backyard that for now doubled as a training ground, since only shinobi of Suna had access to the real ones.

She watched from a distance on her porch the three children practicing the tree walking exercise. She had seen Mitomi complete the exercise with virtually no trouble, thus having her work on her speed rather than control and form. Akane could make it to about halfway up the tree before she would crack the bark and have to jump off or risk landing in an uncomfortably painful position at the base of the tree. Naruto was slightly ahead of her, being able to walk up three-fourths of the length of the rather large tree. _'That boy..'_ Chiyo thought, _'he's rather smart for figuring out his training method.'_ She watched as Naruto began running up the side of the tree, but with two shadow clones accompanying the original.

(Flashback)

 _Naruto was having a rather hard time making it about a fourth of the way up the tree, frustration visible on his face from not making much progress within the day. Suddenly, it seemed an idea came to the blonde before he smirked, forming the_ _sign for the_ _Kage Bushin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)._ _A copy of the blonde poofed into existence next to him, surprising both Akane and Chiyo, although the retired advisor of the Kazekage did not show it nearly as much as the redhead._

 _During his travel to Suna with Mitomi, after she had initially showed him the technique, he had been practicing it to where he could form less clones so that he doesn't keep summoning over one hundred every time, overloading his brain with visual feedback from his clones when they are created and the memories he receives upon dispelling them. Naruto and his doppelgänger looked at each other and smiled at the shocked look on Akane's face, before turning towards the tree and running toward it full speed. "Since I can get the experience of my clones when they despell, I can just train with two of me to make my training progress two times faster!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, proud of his discovery of the potential of his best and only jutsu._

(End Flashback)

Since then, he had upped his shadow clone count to two, slowly acclimatizing himself to the increase in visual capacity that his clones gave him, courtesy of the Rinnegan. If he got too tired from constantly running up the tree, he'd watch his shadow clones climb the tree for him while he stayed at the base of the tree, sitting on one of the large roots. Being able to see what they saw, he watched himself climb the tree in order to spot any errors in their exercise and slowly corrected them as time went on, as suggested by Chiyo.

By nightfall, a bruised and dirty Naruto stood atop what was left of the canopy of the thick tree triumphantly, long after Mitomi and Akane retreated to their room for the night. He dragged himself through the door to his room before crashing haphazardly onto his bedroll, falling asleep seconds after his head made contact with his pillow.

(Inside Naruto's Mindscape)

Naruto opened his eyes to reveal himself once again within the leaking sewer of his mindscape. He walked through the corridors of ankle-deep water and leaking pipes as if he had been here a hundred times, despite only have been here once. All he needed to do was follow the trail of leaking malicious chakra before he found himself standing in front of the daunting metal bars of the cage that held the source of his childhood troubles, the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

A large, orange-furred claw suddenly materialized from the inky darkness behind the cage, slamming into the steel bars with a resounding boom. At this, Naruto didn't even flinch, but only watched as a single large, red eye focused on his eight year old form; a massive grin filled with sharp teeth accompanying the stare at the blonde jinchuuriki.

" **Why have you come to bother me again, Ningen?"** the massive being of chakra asked. "I haven't heard from you in a while, Fuzzball." Naruto quipped. "I thought you might be getting lonely in that little cell of yours without me to keep you company." he added sarcastically. The beasts grin morphed into a scowl before it spoke once more. **"I've had enough of you to last several of your pitifully short lifespans, flesh-sack. Ever since you've 'graced' me with your appearance the first time, I can see what you get yourself into on the outside world through our link. I know about that other red-haired Ningen, as well as Chiyo of Suna."** Kyuubi drawled out spitefully. **"I can also see your fruitless attempts at trying to grasp the power of those eyes of yours. Don't think for one second that you'll ever amount to the original user of those eyes. You're nothing compared to him, he was a God amongst you pitiful Ningen."**

Naruto just stared at the fox, it's nine tails swaying in unison behind it. Blinking a bit, as he processed the full implications of what the fox said, he asked "Wait, does that mean you knew the Rikudou Sennin!?" he asked in awe. The giant fox faltered for a moment, cursing at himself for revealing that much information in his anger. **"That is none of your concern, Ningen. Why do you insist on bothering me so much? Do you wish to earn my trust so that you can abuse me just like all of the containers before you, and the rest of humankind?"** the fox spat.

"Geez, I just wanted to get to know you is all." Naruto deadpanned. A pregnant pause ensued before the Kyuubi scoffed. **"So you wish to learn about me? You will never be able to fully comprehend me, Ningen. You are millennia too young to even try and understand a being such as I."**

"Oh yeah?" Naruto retorted. "I bet I'll be able to get you eventually. I think we'll be friends one day, dattebayo!" Once again, the Kyuubi scoffed. **"Get out of here, Ningen. You are trying my patience."** Naruto felt a tug on his stomach but resisted, staring at the Kyuubi with a smile on his face. **"I said leave!"** the beast shouted, the tug becoming too strong for Naruto to combat through sheer willpower as he was forcefully ejected from his own mindscape, his vision fading to black.

Naruto awakened sprawled out on his bedroll. He looked out of the window in the room and noticed that the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, vibrant orange and pink colors in the clouds nearest to the sun contrasting sharply with the lighter, grayer ones looming overhead closest to him. He looked around the room to find that Mitomi and Akane were still asleep. Well, Akane was at least. Mitomi was just laying on her own bedroll with her eyes open, staring at the wall in front of her.

As if on cue, Chiyo burst through the door as per usual, but this time more urgent. "Alright brats! There's a sandstorm coming up just outside the village and it's time to begin your next stage of training!" she yelled in order to get the three children out of bed. "What?! Training in a sandstorm? Are you crazy, baasan?!" Naruto asked incredulously. "Normally you'd be walking on the surface of water, but here in Suna we don't have the luxury of having bodies of water to train with, so the constantly moving surface of the sand being churned in the storm will have to do. Work hard or die brats! It's the way of the world, so you better get used to it now!" Chiyo barked.

She ushered them all from their room and led them along the streets of Sunagakure before they reached the gate. As they passed through the narrow entrance, the guards looked at the three children with surprise on their faces, fully prepared to stop them until they saw Chiyo, their faces morphing to a look of pity from those who remember how she trained Sasori of the Red Sands prior to his defection.

Chiyo continued leading the trio to a rather large dune where the wind was beginning to pick up before she halted the group right on top of said dune and turned around. "Alright, you brats! This exercise is the same principal as the tree exercise, where you will attempt to balance on the surface of the dune as it's blowing around in the sandstorm by bringing chakra to your feet to maintain on top of the dune rather than sink through it or be thrown off balance by the winds. You have approximately five minutes before the heart of the storm reaches this point, so prepare yourselves. Just because I'm not completely heartless, I have these cloaks for you to wear so your bodies take the least amount of damage possible from the harsh weather." She produced three brown cloaks complete with hoods from a sealing scroll in her bag, tossing one to each of her students.

As they put the cloaks on, she began forming hand seals and slammed her palms into the ground before she shouted "Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)!" Three walls made of rock rose up from the sand and surrounded her on all sides except her front. She sat in a cross-legged position, pulling the scarf she had around her neck over her head and proceeded to watch her three students. Naruto watched as she did this, shouting "That's not fair, Chiyo-baasan! Why do you get shelter and we don't?!"

"Last time I checked, you were the ones being trained, not me." she retorted simply. Naruto turned his attention back to his friends, mumbling in frustration about 'unfair grandmas.'

All of a sudden, the wind picked up drastically and the children only had about a minute of preparation left before they would be stuck in the full force of the sandstorm. They each built chakra within their feet, Mitomi maintaining her position above the ground perfectly as the sand began to churn, while Akane's feet began sinking into the sand, but stopped at about ankle-level. Naruto on the other hand began being carried away by the moving sediment and slowly sinking into the sand with no signs of stopping. "Oh! And no cheating using your gravity manipulation with those eyes of yours, blondie!" Chiyo called out, irking the blonde to no end. He dug his way back up onto the surface of the sand and tried again, only to be carried away in much the same fashion as before, his face comically being buried in the sand from him being knocked off balance.

He spit out sand that managed to get in his mouth, a rather large tick mark forming over his brow. With a determined gaze, he channeled chakra to his feet once more, but refined it rather than just simply coating his feet with it to where there was a thin layer covering the bottoms of his shoes. He picked this up from watching how Akane was barely sinking into the ground. As time went on, Mitomi seemed to have virtually no trouble staying stable on the surface of the dune, while Akane and Naruto were tied for second, each of them being able to stay only ankle deep in the sand.

Chiyo watched in concealed amazement how her students were progressing with their training. It hadn't even been two hours and they were already getting the hang of it. Another two and they would all be perfectly standing atop the dune with the sand whipping around their forms every which way, stinging their eyes.

Naruto's ringed eyes beamed proudly at finally getting the exercise down. He jumped in the air with a fist raised above him. "Yatta! I fucking did it, 'ttebayo!" This momentary loss in concentration made Naruto lose the chakra he built up under his feet and as he landed on the soft sand once more, he was completely swallowed by the dune itself. "Naruto!" cried Akane and Mitomi. Pulling him from his sandy tomb feet first, the blonde spending the next 10 minutes brushing the sand of his hair, clothes, and where the sun doesn't shine.

"Keep in mind that this is only the first stage of your water-walking training. Up next, I'll have you do this exercise on quicksand among other unstable surfaces to make up for not having any spare water to use." Chiyo said, much to the chagrin of Naruto and Akane.

(Sunagakure no Sato- Chiyo's Estate)

Once they got back to the safety of Chiyo's home, Naruto now having an unhealthy disliking for sand as well as chafing problems, Chiyo once again lead them to the base of the tree they used for the first stage of their chakra control training. As she sat the three down on one of the large roots, she pulled out three square bits of paper, and handed one to each of her students.

"Alright, now that your chakra control exercises are complete, it's time to move onto elemental manipulation. We won't begin your training just yet, I just want to figure out each of your elemental affinities so that I may train you accordingly. This is a special type of paper known as chakra paper, only found within each of the Hidden Villages. If you channel your chakra into it, it will break apart in one or two of five ways. If you have a Wind nature, the paper will split down the middle. If you have a Fire nature, it will combust into flames. If you have an Earth nature, it will crumble to dust. If you have a Lightening nature, it will crinkle. And finally, if you have a Water nature, it will dampen." Chiyo explained. "Now each of you give it a try."

Mitomi was up first. As she channeled chakra into the piece of paper, it split into two jagged halves and then each half combusted into flames. "Congratulations Mitomi, you seem to have fire as your dominant nature by the size of the flames, and your secondary nature is wind, due to the jagged rather than clean cuts." Mitomi was surprised at this. She knew she was most likely a Fire nature due to her clan being the Uchiha, but she hadn't known she had a second affinity as Danzo hadn't had her complete elemental manipulation training just yet.

Up next was Akane. As she channeled chakra into her paper, it crinkled into a compact ball and then crumbled into smaller chunks. "Akane, you're primary affinity is Lightning. That is rather unique, as there are not many lightning users in Kaze no Kuni. Your secondary is Earth due to it crumbling into chunks rather than a fine dust." The redhead was satisfied with that, not particularly picky about her elements as she knew the bulk of her skills as a ninja would come from her puppeteering rather than ninjutsu.

Finally, Naruto eagerly channeled chakra into his paper, only for everyone's eyes to widen at the sight. His paper split into four clean and equal sections, one crinkling, one crumbling, one catching on fire, and one dampening. He looked up in confusion at Chiyo, whose eyes were wide open. "Brat.. You seem to possess all five chakra natures, the dominant one being Wind. This is unheard of! I've never seen such a thing!"

Mitomi and Akane stared at the remains of the chakra paper in awe, the former much more concealed than the latter. Chiyo schooled her features once more to add, "Most high chunin to jonin level ninja can only use two elements, the second one only able to be practiced once the first is mastered. For you it seems you have access to all five elements. So this must be the power of the Rikudou Sennin.." she trailed off.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a grin on his face. "It just means I'm that awesome, 'ttebayo!" he exclaimed. "It means that I'm going to bust your ass five times as hard so that you can become proficient in your dominant element before moving on to the others." the elderly woman corrected with a smirk. "I myself, while knowing the steps in manipulation training for the other elements, possess only Wind and Earth natured chakra. It's going to be quite some time before you can gain full access to the next element, which I suspect is Fire due to your furry friend." Naruto swore he could hear an indignant snort coming from the back of his mind, but he ignored it.

With the sun lowering more and more toward the horizon, basking the clouds in a warm glowing amalgamation of oranges, reds, and pinks, Chiyo ushered her students into her home once the air of excitement died down. The next morning the trio of children would begin their elemental training, stripping the tall tree of most of its leaves.

oOo

Sasuke lied in his bed facing the ceiling of his house, the final touches on repairing it had been completed. A good portion of them dedicated to the mysterious crater that was formed within the living room of the estate. Afterwards, he and his mother were allowed back into the compound, which was surprisingly quick considering the mess that had been left behind by the person he thought to be his brother.

He grit his teeth in anger for what felt like the 10th time that day, his mind going back to the events of that fateful night. The night he lost most of his family, and the last time he saw his best friend.

' _Naruto…'_ He thought, sighing. The blond knucklehead's name had, not for the first time in the past couple of days, managed to cross his mind.

He looked out of his window to find that the clouds hanging above the village were overcast, a slight breeze ruffling the trees that dotted the yard around the estate. Soon enough his head began pounding, another migraine seemed to be inevitable.

Reluctantly, Sasuke got out of bed and noticed black clothes sitting folded on the nightstand next to him, black shinobi sandals sitting on the floor. He looked at the outfit in disgust before he began the process of putting it on.

Sasuke proceeded downstairs to see his mother cooking breakfast, but instead of the usual Uchiha robes she wore, today she was clad in an all-black dress. As she set the two plates on the table, Mikoto looked up to see her son staring at her with an empty, almost pleading, expression. A sight she was loathingly becoming used to.

"Come on, Sasuke-kun. You know what day it is today, we can't be late." Mikoto said with more than a hint of melancholy. Nodding, Sasuke sat down with his mother at the table as they ate their food in an uncomfortable silence. After they cleaned up, they left the house without so much as a word and walked through the streets of Konoha in continued silence.

As they approached the Hokage tower, Sasuke noticed the crowd beginning to form at the base, where people were greeting each other somewhat half-heartedly. The exchanges were understandable, considering the circumstances as to why they were all gathered here.

As people began climbing the stairs to the roof of the large building, one could see a vast array of portraits laid out in a straight line, each one placed on a purple pillow, each end flanked with ornate candles.

Among the sea of pale white faces and black hair, a picture of a tan blonde boy with blonde hair and blue eyes could be seen. This irked a majority of the adults present, wondering why the demon that they had finally rid themselves of was among those who were being remembered on this day. In stark contrast to the majority of adults in the crowd, the children of Naruto's class stared solemnly at his picture. All except a certain Hyuuga, whose cheeks were red as tears steadily streamed down her face.

The Hokage, his expression unreadable, kneeled to put a hand on Hinata's shoulder, causing her to slowly look up at him, almost awestruck when she noticed how haggard the normally collected leader looked.

The Hokage was elderly of course, but in this moment she saw him not as the invincible guardian of their village, but as a tired old man.

Closing his eyes, he gave her a grim nod of understanding, moving his head almost sluggishly. Releasing his grasp on her shoulder, he then strolled to the front of the large gathering of villagers and cleared his throat.

"...There are no words. None at all, that can fully express the sorrow, pain, and melancholy that I feel, and see before me. This, is a dark occasion, one I wish I never lived to see." Hiruzen allowed a pregnant pause to ensue, taking a moment to look at the faces in the crowd, noting the amount of people who mirrored his train of thought. "In addition to, what can only be described as the Uchiha Massacre, a child by the name of Uzumaki Naruto has also passed." he said, motioning toward the picture of the whisker-faced child. "As many of you already know, Naruto was an orphan. A child without even a notion of family on this earth. Despite this, there were those in the Uchiha clan who took him in, as though he were their own. These individuals stand as paragons to what it means to be true protectors, people who help those in need, no matter who they may be." Taking a moment to pause, Hiruzen caught the eye of Mikoto, giving her an almost imperceptible nod. "I would like to take this moment to give the opportunity for one of those individuals to speak"

Taking that as her cue, Mikoto drew a shaky breath. "Thank you, Hokage-sama. It was truly an honor to have Naruto-kun's company in my household. He brought much needed happiness to myself and my son." she decided to leave her other one out, for obvious reasons. At that, a few of the villagers gave her a look of.. irritation? Disappointment? Whichever it was, she rectified it with a quick flare of her Sharingan, glaring at the individuals who dared to question her judgement in taking in the Uzumaki boy.

The Sandaime cleared his throat once again, more forcefully, to reign the attention back onto him before he continued. "I forget my manners. Before we continue with the ceremony, I would like to personally thank you all for coming. As I said previously, this is a dark occasion, one in which many of you would rather mourn in privacy with your loved ones. It is very generous of you to take the time to be here for others in this moment of grief. We will need that unity in the times to come."

"Now, you may proceed to pay your respects." he said holding an arm out towards the portraits

One by one, the villagers formed a line, each carrying a single rose to be laid out in front of the line of portraits. When it came time for Sasuke to walk up to Naruto's picture, his fists clenched, digging the rose's thorns into his palm. The thorns cut deep enough to begin drawing blood, but the Uchiha didn't care. His hair shadowed his eyes for a moment before he looked up once more. "He's not dead." he said in a low voice. "What was that, Sasuke-kun?" asked the Sandaime. "He's not dead." Sasuke said again, more loudly. The Hokage's face morphed into a frown.

The eldest Sarutobi moved forward, placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder in an effort to calm him. "Sasuke-kun, I'm sorry, but it is true. Naruto is gone." Sasuke growled at this. Angry, he shook off Hiruzen's arm, gritting his teeth again before yelling, "Then where's the body?! How do you know that he's really dead?! Naruto can't die! He's too stubborn! He'll claw his dumb ass out of the Shinigami's stomach! There's no way!" Sasuke shouted, eliciting several gasps from the crowd, especially his mother, at how the usually calm Uchiha was acting out. Even more concerning to the majority of the villagers was that it was in favor of the demon brat no less, rather than his own family.

He turned to the crowd before addressing all of them directly. "I know he can't be dead! After YOU had a mob to try and beat him two years ago, he was back the next day! Now that he suddenly disappears, you think he'd just die like that?! Pathetic." The raven haired boy then stomped off, leaving a stunned crowd in his wake. As he left, the crowd began murmuring amongst themselves. Unbeknownst to him, the reason why the crowd was so shocked wasn't just because of his outburst. When he had turned to face them, instead of being greeted by his normally dark coal-black eyes, they had only seen red, a single tomoe within each one.

(Later That Night)

Kiba woke up in his room in the Inuzuka compound, his new puppy Akamaru curled up at the end of his bed as per usual these days. He sat up and yawned in a rather excessive fashion, stretching his back and hearing several satisfying cracks. With some effort, he swung his legs over to hang off of the bed, a depressed look on his face.

" _Damn it..."_ While the two hadn't been the best of friends, in fact Kiba gave him a lot of shit during the time they were in the academy together, he still missed having the presence of the blonde within the village. It just wasn't the same without his goofy antics. He looked out of his window to find that it was dark outside. Noticing how not very many people were out and about, he assumed that it was around midnight.

Drawing his attention away from the few people walking in the streets, his thoughts slowly drifted to the reason behind his lack of sleep.

(Flashback)

 _Kiba sat in his seat in Iruka-sensei's class, listening to his teacher drone on about the history of Konohagakure, once again going over the battle between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. He looked over at Shikamaru, who was of course asleep at his desk, making Kiba feel like doing the same. However, when he looked over his other shoulder, he noticed a boy he never really payed attention to in class before sport a mischievous grin. The whisker marks on either cheek gave him a rather foxy appearance, only adding to his mischievous demeanor._

 _As Iruka took a break from his lecture to ask questions, the boy's grin only widened when he was called upon by the scarred teacher. He reached into his pocket to pull out what looked like a little purple ball before throwing it on the ground, creating a cloud of smoke._

 _Once the smoke cleared, the boy was no longer there. Iruka was taken aback by this, taking a moment to survey the classroom for any sign of the potential genin. He stopped when he saw blonde locks retreating away from the Academy through the window facing the courtyard. A rather large tick mark appeared on his temple. "NARUTO!" the man yelled before noticing that Kiba's seat was also empty. Looking over towards the entrance to the classroom he saw said child standing in the doorway, a grin on his face. "See ya, Iruka-sensei!" he taunted before dashing off._

(End Flashback)

Kiba smiled fondly at the memory, that being the first time he took notice of Naruto. Suddenly, his hands tightened into fists, a look of determination crossing his features. He got dressed and headed out into the village.

xXx

Konohagakure no Sato.

In all appearances, everything seemed normal. A few pedestrians were out and about, wandering throughout the village without a care in the world, visiting friends and family, getting a midnight snack at one of the few stores dotting the village still open at this time, or just milling about with no particular destination.

But tonight, things were a little bit different.

A brown blur sped down the streets of Konoha, bringing up dirt in its wake, causing villagers to cover their eyes and mouths, coughing.

Upon closer inspection, the brown blur was revealed to be a boy, about eight years of age. He had unruly brown hair, dark canine-like eyes, had a light tan, and wore a beige long sleeve shirt with green shorts and blue shinobi sandals. The most noticeable trait; however, were the two fang markings on his cheeks, one on each side of his face.

He ran down the street carrying what looked like several cartons of eggs, making a beeline for the residential districts of the village

Once he noticed the lights of the apartments, he unsheathed his weapon of choice. He took a moment to look at the white egg thoughtfully, before looking back up at the unblemished walls of the apartment complex he was standing in front of. A few moments later, and many of the walls now had egg splattered all over them. With a nod of satisfaction, he moved on to the rest of the apartments and even some of the clan compounds, barring the Uchiha district.

As he was finishing up a storefront that doubled as an apartment, he heard a faint breeze pick up behind him, leaves churning in the wind. He turned around to find a woman standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. She wore the standard jonin outfit of Konohagakure, complete with flak jacket and kunai pouch. She had long, unkempt brown hair that stuck out every which way and ended at her shoulders, on either side of her cheeks were two fang marks identical to Kiba's own.

"Kaa-san?!" the Inuzuka junior asked incredulously. He was sure he masked his scent prior to leaving his house. The woman scoffed before staring at Kiba intensely. "Really, Kiba? I'm not one of the best trackers in this village for nothing you know. Now explain yourself before I drag you home and sic Kuromaru on you!" she barked.

He gulped at the implication before lowering his head, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "It isn't fair that the villagers are all gonna forget about Naruto." he said lowly. At that, Tsume raised an eyebrow. Kiba wasn't by any means the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew about how the villagers treated him, the scorn in their glares evident during the mass funeral earlier that day. "He can't just be forgotten like that! It's bullshit!" he yelled. "He was a part of the village as much as anyone else!" Tsume's expression softened as she reached for her son.

Kiba flinched as she stuck out her hand, preparing himself for a hit on the head but was surprised when she reached around him and pulled him into an embrace. She kept him there for a moment before releasing him and kneeling down so her eyes were level with his. She pointed behind her at a house that he hadn't reached yet. "You missed one." she said simply with a soft smile. Kiba returned it and marched off to finish the job that he had started. "Oh, and one more thing." he turned around to see what else his mother had to say.

"Don't touch our compound or I'll neuter you."

* * *

 **A/N: Reviews from the last update:**

 **Lucie4512:** I thank you for your constructive criticism, as it has finally put me into the action of rewriting the first chapter to tailor it more to my liking, as I can't help but cringe at my early stages of writing this fic. Feel free to reread it once I post it and let me know how you like the rewritten version, as well as any qualms about the updated version as well! After all, I aim to please those who take the time out of their day to read my work, and advice and suggestions are always appreciated (: (Edit: The first and second chapters have been revised an reuploaded :D)

 ** _BlackDragonShinigami & LordGhostStriker:_** _Actually we don't have any plans to have Naruto become allied with any one village, which will be explained more in future chapters, didn't wanna make you feel like we were leading you on with that one, regarding the comment on the backstory on the sage of six paths, it was probably a little more detailed than it should have been, but we went in with the implication that she would have been tasked to learn as much about anything that could potentially be used in the future, so she, as well as many of the root nin, would have had to learn as much as they could about the sage of six paths, since he was such an important figure in history. Her sum total knowledge comes from the work of several of her 'colleagues', including Danzo, not just herself._

 **Antex-The Legendary Zoroark:** Unfortunately, I have to deny your request for an OC submission. As it stands, there are many OCs who have yet to be introduced and adding any more would take away from the main storyline, in addition to forcing us to retrace our steps in trying to incorporate any new OCs into our current plans. You're more than welcome to leave any suggestions and/or feedback as you see fit, however (:

 ** _Kakeru-PB:_** _No, it's an error on our part and thank you very much for bringing this to our attention, I think at the time it was meant to be read in sarcasm because Naruto is publicly known as an orphan and wouldn't belong in a clan, but with the way that it's written that becomes a lot harder to see, so it's one of the things we plan on fixing. :P_


	10. Uprooted

**The Black Sheep**

 _Disclaimer: I don't own the shithead, you fucks!_

 **Chapter 10: Uprooted**

"NARUTO!" A scream was heard all throughout the village as a shock of yellow darted through the busy streets of Sunagakure. Uzumaki Naruto laughed heartily to himself as he was being chased by a brown-haired boy dressed in a simple white t-shirt and dull green pants with black shinobi sandals. He had purple face paint decorating his face, his features twisted into a look of anger. It had been a whole year since the blonde boy had come to the village, and his appearance had changed accordingly.

He ditched the rather unorthodox sunglasses that he once wore as a temporary means to cover his ringed eyes and opted to instead narrow them in order to keep them hidden from view, as he had seen a traveling monk do during his stay in Suna. His hair grew out a bit, his bangs hanging just above his eyes which also helped in hiding them, held back by a black cloth used as a headband. He was dressed in black pants and shinobi sandals with a baggy beige long-sleeved shirt. He had grown a few centimeters within the last year as well, now as tall as Akane. This irked her due to her being almost a year older than him.

"Ha! I got you again, Kankuro! Suck it!" the blonde yelled loudly, antagonizing the boy chasing him further. _'I'll teach this little shit what happens when you draw all over my puppets!'_ thought the boy now identified as Kankuro.

"What's the matter? Don't you like it when I put makeup on your dolls? They look just like you!" Naruto snickered. "They aren't dolls! And this is warrior face paint, you punk!" As the two boys rounded a corner, they each stopped in their tracks when they saw a particular blonde standing in the way with her arms crossed. She had her hair tied back into four spiky pony-tails and was dressed in a long, simple black dress with black shinobi sandals. Next to her stood a rather large metal box stuck into the sand. "Temari-chan.." Naruto said tentatively, now sweating comically. "Don't you 'Temari-chan' me, Naruto-baka!" she paused before addressing both of them. "What have I told you about running around the village like that? Father gets upset when he receives reports that originate from you guys being idiots!" A tick mark appeared over her head as she heaved the big metal box, which was as large as she was tall, cocked it above her head and swung it squarely at Naruto and Kankuro's unsuspecting jaws, their forms tumbling comically to the floor before recollecting themselves rather sloppily and nursing the large bumps forming on the sides of their faces.

' _Ever since she got that war fan, she's gotten ten times more scary.. and painful.'_ Kankuro mused to himself grimly.

As Temari prepared to berate them further, two girls could be seen walking down the street at a leisurely pace. One had deep red hair and caramel skin, while the other had black hair and was rather pale. As they came into view, Naruto's eyes widened, marginally as to not reveal his Rinnegan, upon seeing them approach. "Mitomi-chan! Akane-chan! Over here!" he waved. "Eh? Oh! Naruto!" Akane shouted back; Mitomi simply waved in his direction. Just like their blonde friend, the two girls also underwent a wardrobe change in the past year. Mitomi wore a simple black qipao dress with a mesh undershirt underneath, black spandex leggings, and black, metal-plated fingerless gloves with black shinobi sandals.

Akane sported a short brown dress covered with a beige strapless top with dark brown trimmings, the sleeves rolled up to expose her caramel arms. To top it off, she had brown shinobi sandals and brown stockings reaching up to mid-thigh, a dark brown collar around her neck. They both had grown a bit taller, Akane the same height as Naruto and Mitomi coming in just a bit shorter. As they approached and began talking amongst themselves, Temari became lost in her thoughts. _'Gaara.. You've picked up some good friends haven't you, baby brother?'_

(Flashback)

 _Four figures stood alone at the playground, not another soul in sight for a few hundred meters. Upon closer inspection, these figures were eight year olds Naruto, Mitomi, Gaara, and a nine year old Akane. Gaara was showing off his sand manipulation in the sandpit, molding it into different shapes, objects, and people with his chakra. As the three children marveled at their friend's abilities, footsteps were heard approaching them. They all turned around to see who would come close to them, as not many people had the balls to do so due to Gaara. As it turns out, balls weren't needed because the person who approached the quartet of children was a girl, and a child no less. She didn't seem to be that much older than the others, appearing about ten years of age. Her hair was done up in four ponytails at the back of her head, and she was dressed in a black hakama. She was watching them with a critical eye, her arms folded in front of her. Recognition passed over Gaara and Akane's faces before the latter greeted the newcomer. "Temari! What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be with Kazekage-sama today?"_

 _The blonde female just shrugged. "I finished all of my duties with Father early. Can I not come and see my baby brother?" questioned Temari with a raised eyebrow. "Yes you can Temari! It's just.. Well, I'm not used to you approaching us outside of the Kazekage tower is all.." Akane acquiesced. Temari accepted the response quickly, shifting her gaze to the two children that she had not seen before. Mitomi had paid attention to when she replied to Akane's comment regarding the Kazekage as 'Father'. "You're the Kazekage's children?" she asked the blonde girl and her racoon-like sibling, her interest piqued._

" _EH?" Naruto looked at Gaara and Temari comically surprised, an accusing finger pointed at the two. Gaara gave a tentative nod, visibly uncomfortable with the topic while Temari gave more of a begrudging one, a small frown evident. She shook her head a moment before a confident smile replaced her frown._

" _Temari no Sabaku at your service. And who might you be, Gaara's 'friends'?" Temari was no fool. She knew that certain people tried to get close to Gaara in order to take advantage of him. Granted, it was mostly adults who would stoop to that level, but she didn't take any chances._

 _She was rather surprised when the blonde one, who looked rather silly wearing sunglasses in the more shaded region of Sunagakure, piped up. "Damn right! I'm Naruto, 'ttebayo!" he jabbed his thumb into his chest while a foxy grin formed on his face. The girl who, thankfully for Temari's sanity, was much more soft spoken, waved and smiled at Temari. The smile put her off somehow, but she dismissed the feeling. "Hello, my name is Mitomi." she said in her usual monotone voice. She gave them another look before she nodded her head in satisfaction._

" _Alright Gaara, I'm going to go back home and get some rest, you should come home soon too." With that, she waved goodbye to the younger children and walked back from whence she came._

'I might regret this, but I think I like those kids.' _she thought while shaking her head with a smile._

(End Flashback)

Temari was shaken from her musings when she heard Naruto and Kankuro's inevitable bickering once more.

"I told you already, they're not damn dolls you idiot!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are t-"

" **QUIET!"** Temari raised her fan up threateningly once more, prompting the two to quiet down immediately. She huffed impatiently before grabbing Kankuro by the arm forcefully. "I was on my way to the tower trying to find you, Father has summoned us. Gaara is already there waiting, come on Kankuro-baka." She walked off with her reluctant brother in tow, waving goodbye to Naruto, Akane, and Mitomi. The former was still locked in a deadly staring battle with Kankuro as he was being dragged away, before they rounded a corner and disappeared.

The sun began setting behind the large dunes that surrounded the village. With nothing else on any of their agendas, they made their way to Chiyo's estate at the other end of the village, intent on having an intense training session due to having a relatively slow day, Naruto in particular itching for some action.

(Just Outside the Village Gates)

 _Drip.._

 _Drip.._

 _Drip.._

The stench of iron permeated the air as a lone figure stood amongst the still forms of several others sprawled across the sand. A glint of metal reflected from the moonlight as red dripped from the tip of the kunai the figure was holding. Dressed in mesh armor under navy shirt and pants with matching shinobi sandals, the person's eyes were closed as if in thought.

' _I don't have much time left.. I'm sorry, but you'll be on your own now.'_

They remained still for a few moments longer, before their eyes opened to reveal the red irises of the Sharingan.

(Inside the Village)

A sweaty, bruised, and tired Naruto was walking along the streets of Sunagakure, heading back to Chiyo's estate after stopping by the sandwich shop that he began frequenting. It wasn't quite ramen level, but he had to admit that the food was very good.

As he walked leisurely with his hands behind his head, he felt a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he was being watched. However, every time he looked over his shoulder, he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

' _Oi Kyuubi, do you sense anyone?'_ Silence. Naruto huffed. _'Well thanks for nothing, you stupid fox!'_

He reasoned with himself that it was probably Suna's ANBU keeping tabs on him due to his recent pranking streak that put him at odds with the Kazekage, making sure he wasn't trying anything. With that sorted out, the feeling mostly abated as he approached his destination.

Upon walking through the main entrance, the blonde walked to the side of the house to use the water pump to clean himself off. After washing himself, he moved once more toward the dark wooden door leading inside. Glancing once more behind himself before heading into the house, he quietly made his way upstairs, not wanting to wake anyone.

Soon enough he found himself at the top of the staircase, where he was greeted with a hallway, which then branched into two rooms opposite of each other. He stealthily slipped through the doorway to the right, while noticing Akane and Mitomi had already fallen asleep. Following suit, he eagerly retired to his bedroll.

xXx

A Suna nin was stationed atop one of the many rooftops of the village. He was dressed in the typical garb of a jonin, being the brown flak jacket with brown pants and shoes complete with a white turban atop his head to protect from the heat. He lazily looked around, his face carrying a general expression of absolute boredom.

A black streak of movement danced across his vision before he felt a searing pain suddenly erupt from his neck. When he put his hand up, he withdrew it to reveal copious amounts of blood. He struggled to speak, only managing to gurgle before he fell to his knees and onto the floor, lifeless. The black blur was revealed to be a cloaked and masked figure with no discernable hitai-ate on their person.

They wiped the blood from their tanto and resheathed it, using their hands to form a signal. As they did this, three more equally cloaked and masked figures materialized in a shunshin next to the first. Another hand signal was made, directing the cell toward the residential area of the village before they all took off at blinding speeds.

xXx

A loud crash shook the children from their slumber. None of the children could process what was going on in their current groggy states. Four figures all forcibly entered through the window of the room they were sleeping in, grabbing Naruto and binding him in ninja wire in one fell swoop.

Mitomi noticed this and immediately activated her Sharingan, a kunai finding it's way into her hand from her sleeve before she threw said kunai at Naruto's bindings to attempt to give him a way to escape, but the intruders seemed to expect this, as one of them intercepted the projectile with one of their own kunai before it could find it's mark, lighting the room in sparks from the resulting clash of metal. The blonde cried out in surprise before he was swiftly gagged with a rag to prevent any unwanted attention from his calling, in addition to having a chakra suppression seal placed on him to prevent him from escaping.

As the figures made their way back out the window, Chiyo burst through the door just as they began making their escape. Thinking quickly, she hurled several kunai toward the attackers, only for hers to be deflected as well. Chiyo cursed to herself before she turned toward her two female charges. "Mitomi, Akane. I'm going after the brat, I'm trusting you to go and gather reinforcements to ensure that they can't leave the village. If you can, get Gaara. His sand manipulation could be the key to seeing your blonde idiot of a friend again." With that, she jumped through the window to give pursuit to the kidnappers.

Despite her old age, her movement and speed hadn't left her. As a result, she caught up to them rather quickly. Seeing as how Naruto was being held captive, Chiyo had to think about her next plan of action. Her options were limited, as a lot of the jutsu in her repertoire were rather destructive and/or lethal, and she didn't feel like having to scrape whatever would be left of the jinchuuriki off of the pavement. As she gave pursuit to the jinchuuriki's kidnappers, her mind briefly wandered to how her two female charges were fairing.

(With Mitomi and Akane)

The two girls raced for the Kazekage tower, well aware of the danger that Naruto was in. "I hope Naruto will be okay…" worried a panicking Akane. "Do not worry Akane-san. Lady Chiyo has more than enough expertise to keep track of him and the enemy shinobi. She is not one of the retired counselors of the Kazekage for nothing you know." Hearing that from her raven-haired companion stifled some of the anxiety she was feeling, but she still worried for the Rinnegan bearer. However, even as Mitomi said that to help calm the redhead, doubts began to form in her mind. _'These thoughts again… Is this what worry feels like?'_

They approached the door to the manner and briefly knocked on the ornate door, for Temari to greet the two. She yawned before addressing them. "Hey guys, what do you want?" she sobered from her tired state when she saw the look in Akane's eyes. "What's going on?"

"It seems that enemy shinobi have found a way in and kidnapped Naruto-san. Lady Chiyo is giving chase, but we fear that it may not be enough, and thus would like to enlist Gaara to help us with his sand. You could be quite useful with your wind techniques as well, Temari-san." As the fan wielder was about to respond, she felt a presence behind her come from out of nowhere. "What's this I hear about a kidnapping?"

All three children were surprised to come face to face with the Kazekage himself. His commanding presence easily affecting Akane and to a lesser extent Temari. As his daughter was about to respond, the Kazekage beat her to the punch. "Save your breath. I will get Gaara to pursue these intruders. If you wish, you may accompany him, Temari." She nodded affirmatively.

Not allowing a moment to spare, the Kazekage continued. "Now go. Teach these shinobi what it means to mess with the might of Sunagakure."

xXx

Mitomi and Akane both raced across the rooftops to catch up to Chiyo. A plan was made for them to come up from the rear and assist the master puppeteer in her endeavor of stopping the shinobi while Temari and Gaara made a wide circle around them to cut them off before they reached the exit.

They spotted Chiyo engaging one of the ninja with kunai and shuriken, attempting to pick them off one at a time rather than risk catching Naruto in the crossfire with ninjutsu or her puppets. The aged woman noticed their converging forms, and allowed them to catch up to brief her on the situation.

"Temari and Gaara are en route to intercept them up ahead. We are here to provide backup if necessary." Though from the looks of it, she seemed to have everything going just fine. As they kept in pursuit, sparks flying from kunai and shuriken bouncing off of one another, suddenly a wave of sand rose from the village streets below to reveal two of the three Sand Siblings riding atop it.

Temari opened her fan and gave it a huge swing, forming fierce air currents that were sharp enough to tear scratches into the shinobi's clothing and skin. The blast of wind knocked them off course, but they managed to recover quickly before Gaara could attempt to capture them. Gaara then focused and formed a wide barrier of sand around the fleeing targets, shrinking it to encase them in it. Once they were unable to move, tendrils shot out from the wave of sand and grabbed Naruto, bringing him safely to Gaara's side.

With that out of the way, he turned his full attention back to his friend's assailants. An unmerciful look in his pupiless ringed eyes, Gaara raised his hand up, bringing the ninja encased in sand up higher in the air, before he closed it into a tight fist.

"Sabaku Kyū (Sand Coffin)!"

Sand fully encased the four unknown attackers before it compressed tightly, tearing their bodies asunder. Not even a scream of pain was heard. Mitomi was surprised, even if she didn't know it; not by the rather brutal way that Gaara dispatched their foes, but that said eight year old managed to best not one, but four Root nin. This was a testament to his growing strength. After all, he _was_ the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi.

xXx

Naruto and Mitomi found themselves face to face with the Kazekage in his office. His elbows sat on his desk with his hands folded in front of his face, looking over the two children before him. "I believe it is about time you give me an explanation." he said, his icy stare seemingly piercing right through them.

Naruto's brow furrowed at the demand. "Explanation?! I almost got kidn-" he started, before stopping himself as Mitomi quickly threw him a glare that clearly told him to be quiet. Knowing Naruto's brashness would probably complicate the situation more than it already had been, she decided to address the village head. "Yes, Kazekage-sama. As you may suspect, we are not originally from Suna." The man nodded, prompting her to continue. "We actually come from the Land of Fire." She decided to leave out that they originally hailed from Konoha, lest they be declared as spies.

"Where we came from, we were targeted for treason, although we did nothing to instigate such measures, it was a misunderstanding blown out of proportion. Myself and my friend here-" she gestured toward Naruto, "-fled to Kaze no Kuni where we decided to try and live a peaceful life in your village. This was the first time that we had been targeted since we fled, so we had no idea that they would be coming for us."

Staying silent after Mitomi's explanation, the Kazekage pulled out a file from the many papers littering the drawers of his desk. "Then can you explain to me-" he pointed to a picture on the dossier, "-why we found bodies that looked similar to those who infiltrated my village just outside of the gates?" The Kazekage could tell that Mitomi wasn't telling him something, but detected no hint of lying so he decided to let it be.

Naruto and Mitomi faltered for a moment, gazing at the picture that the Kazekage pointed out to them. _'There were others? Who killed them?'_ wondered the disguised Uchiha. Mitomi took over again, seeing Naruto trying to make sense of this revelation. "We had no knowledge of them, Kazekage-sama. The incident tonight was the first we have seen of these people since we escaped from our original home. We apologize for the danger we put your village in, and would like to rectify this in any way you deem necessary."

"I see." he simply stated. "Well, I believe the best course of action is for you to leave as soon as possible." He let that bit of information sink in, causing Naruto to gulp and Mitomi to avert her gaze. "I'm well aware of the relationship you have with my three children, as well as Chiyo's star student, but I must put the security of my village above all else, and I'm afraid there is no other way to protect it than to remove those who threaten its peace."

Naruto wanted to yell. He wanted to get into the man's face and scream, but he knew it would only end badly. Not only for him, but for Mitomi as well, and the last thing he wanted was for someone else to get punished just for something he did. Mitomi understood the village leader's decision, though she couldn't help but notice a sour feeling in her chest.

"I will allow you to stay the night in order to prepare, and I will provide you with a few day's rations to at least make it to some other place of residence, but I expect you two to be gone by tomorrow morning. I will have my children see you off. You are dismissed."

As the ornate door to the Kazekage's office closed behind them, Naruto couldn't help but ball his hands into fists. He was angry at their current situation, but moreso angry at himself. If only he could have done something. _'Damn it! Another home gone just because I couldn't kick their ass!'_

Shaking his head of toxic thoughts, Naruto carried on through the hallway of the Kazekage tower to the exit with his Uchiha companion. He looked over to her to see how she took the news, only to be met with her usual impassive stare as she looked ahead.

He realized that beating himself up over this wouldn't help any. He just had to carry on and become stronger. As he neared the front door, he saw Akane seated on a bench, twiddling her thumbs in nervousness. She perked up when she saw her two friends approaching, but seeing them up close did nothing to ease her nerves. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"We have to leave the village by tomorrow morning." Whatever she hoped to say died in her throat as she simply stared incredulously at her raven-haired friend. "...What?"

"Us being here is a danger to everyone in the village." Naruto spat. He didn't want to believe it, but there was no denying what happened almost half an hour ago..

"But you can't just leave! What about Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara?!"

' _What about me?'_

Naruto stared helplessly at the redhead he'd become friends with over the course of the past year. "I know. It's complete bullshit but we can't just not do what he says." he had a point there, but Akane still didn't want to accept it. Naruto walked out of the door, flanked by his two female friends. All three of them began a solemn walk back to Chiyo's estate in silence.

(The Next Morning)

Naruto and Mitomi were standing just beyond the imposing walls of Sunagakure, dressed in brown hooded cloaks to protect them from the harsh desert weather. Standing in front of them were all three Sand Siblings as well as Akane and Chiyo.

"Well.. this sucks." Kankuro said lamely. Because he wasn't present for the events of last night, it came as a sudden shock once he woke up that morning to hear that his friends were being exiled.

"Indeed." was all that Mitomi could say; her limited interaction with people didn't prepare her for farewells. She was used to just vanishing without a trace. Gaara spoke up next, which surprised everyone due to Gaara's usually reserved, timid nature.

"I'm.. sad to see that you must go. It was fun having you here. I only wish there was some way to let you stay." Temari huffed at that. "Well you know Father. Once he comes to a decision he sticks to it." She walked forward and unexpectedly hugged both Naruto and Mitomi before backing off and allowing Gaara and Kankuro to shake their hands. "You were a lot of trouble, punk." Kankuro said as he gripped Naruto's hand tightly. "So were you and your dolls and makeup, baka." Naruto retorted slyly despite the rather somber circumstances.

"What was that?! Why I oughta-" Before Kankuro could throttle the blonde, Temari held him back. Akane stepped up next to bid her friends farewell. As she backed away from the hug she gave them, a tear streaked down her cheek. She found that her vocal cords didn't seem to want to work, only allowing her to say "G-goodbye Naruto, Mitomi.."

Chiyo stepped up and ruffled the two children's hair, a smile on her face. "It was good having you here, brats. If it was possible, you made my life both a blessing and a living hell, but I couldn't ask for anything better.

' _Sasori… You could have learned a lot from these kids.'_

With that, the two waved their final goodbyes and walked into the sweltering heat of the deserts of Kaze no Kuni.

xXx

As night descended upon Naruto and Mitomi, they decided to take shelter once they came across a small outcropping of rock, the structure of stone sticking out of the dunes far enough to provide a roof over their heads.

With no wood, they could not create a campfire so the duo each munched on a small portion of their rations that were given to them before Mitomi unsealed their bedrolls and they slowly began drifting off into the realm of unconsciousness.

…

…

Until they heard something crash onto the dunes not too far away from their location. Deciding to investigate, they poked their heads out from under their rock to see a prone form laying in the sand. They cautiously approached the figure until they spotted a familiar shock of red hair.

"Akane?!"

* * *

 **A/N:** My bad for the huge delay in this chapter. I know I tend to just make excuses every time I upload but writing this in addition to dealing with all of the real life shit going on with me is a bit of a challenge. Regardless, here it is for those of you who haven't given up on me just yet.

Awesomesauce out.


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